Real Estate Network

Posts Tagged ‘Getting’

Charlotte, NC (PRWEB) November 18, 2011

American IRA, LLC , one of the industry leaders in Self-directed retirement services, has been working to educate the public about their investment and retirement options. Mr. Hitt says he is happy to announce that “The recent numbers show that people are listening. The latest trend in retirement savings and investment is the savvy investor.”

The financial community has long ignored the diversification options of IRA accounts. Non-traditional investments have been allowed in IRA accounts since the Employment Retirement Security Act (ERISA) passed in 1975. However, after more than 35 years most mainstream financial institutions continue to limit the investment options of IRA accounts to traditional investments such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Until recently, most individuals holding IRA investment accounts have been unaware of their options.

Statistics show that, with the flagging economy and the increased popularity of IRA accounts, people are becoming more informed. According to a recent *Associated Press poll, 73 percent of retirees are planning to work past retirement; this number is up from 67 percent just this spring. As 32 percent of those surveyed say they have lost money in their IRA account, those traditional investment methods are becoming less and less reliable.

American IRA, LLC is one of the premiere companies offering self-directed IRA accounts. With these accounts, investors have the freedom to invest in a wide variety of assets including precious metals and real estate. Currently only about 5 percent of retirement accounts are invested in such non traditional assets. However, with the greater flexibility and higher profit potential experts expect this number to rise sharply in coming months and years.

The unfortunate side effect of the growing popularity of self-directed IRA accounts is a whole new industry of scams appearing. This has prompted the Securities and Exchange committee to issue a warning. They have advised investors to beware or excessive risk, and potentially fraudulent investment companies. That is one of the reasons for the growing popularity of long established, highly credible American IRA, LLC. With nearly 7 years in business and over $ 250 million in assets this company has earned a sterling reputation.

All indications show that the individual investor is getting smarter. The new wave in financial planning is taking one’s future in one’s own hands. This recently increasing popularity of self directed retirement options, as well as the high percentage of investors wisely choosing established companies, such as American IRA, is just one more benchmark showing how savvy investors are becoming.

Founder, James C. Hitt has nearly 30 years of personal experience using self directed retirement accounts. It has worked for him since 1982, and now he and his company are making it work for thousands of clients. With a knowledgeable staff, and highly informative website American IRA LLC focuses on educating their clients about the benefits of self-directed IRAs.

American IRA LLC was founded in 2004, in Asheville, NC with the mission of providing the highest level of customer service in the self directed retirement industry.

Mr. Hitt and his team have grown the company to over $ 250 million in assets under administration. They protect your account by making sure that all uninvested cash under their administration is FDIC insured. As administrators, they do not make any recommendations to any person or entity associated with any type of investment.

For more information on this or any other type of self-directed retirement account, please feel free to contact the team at American IRA, LLC via e-mail [info(at)americanira(dot)com] or via phone [1-866-7500-IRA(472)], or visit their website [http://www.americanira.com .

Online:

Poll results: http://surveys.ap.org

*LifeGoesStrong.com: http://family.lifegoesstrong.com/bad-economics-midlifers-push-back-their-retirement-date-again

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If you owe the Internal Revenue Service money, chances are that they are looking for you.  The agency will comb records like the DMV, bank accounts, real estate tax information, utility accounts, voter registration, and more.  Most people can be found through one of the more standard searches of which we have just given examples, but if they can’t, the IRS can utilize other searches at their disposal.

A lot of people think of the IRS as a top heavy, bungling, bureaucracy that has trouble getting out of its own way.  The IRS is a huge bureaucracy, that much is true, but it is streamlined when it comes to catching tax cheats.  The Internal Revenue Service is the best collection agency in the world, and they are becoming better and better detectives, too.

The Internal Revenue Service is also getting inventive about looking for you.  These days, the IRS will look for you on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.  Even before that, they will do a Google search to see if it turns you up.  If you think it’s cool that old friends and classmates can find you through social networking, remember that the IRS can find you that way, too.

One of the newest areas of fraud detection the Internal Revenue Service has begun to converge on is mortgage interest.  It seems that mortgage interest is an item greatly abused by tax cheaters who want to decrease their tax liability illegitimately.

Some people have started the process of underreporting their earnings while still claiming their full mortgage interest as a deduction.  In many cases, when the Internal Revenue Service crunches the numbers, the agency discovers that there is no way a person with this income could be making these mortgage payments.  The red flag goes up, the taxpayer is audited and revealed to be a cheat.

This is one of the reasons it never pays to be dishonest on your income tax return or to get carried away with deductions.  The Internal Revenue Service will not reveal the details that trigger a tax audit, but you can bet that taking too many deductions in consideration of income has got to be one of them.

It is the job of the Internal Revenue Service to do analysis, and they are pretty good at it.  That includes analyzing all the ways you might try and hide from them.

A person has limitless options when looking for residential properties in Philippines real estate listings. Metro Manila is a really big place jam-packed with apartments, houses, and condominiums, surrounded with commercial and entertainment centers. Getting an apartment to reside in can occasionally be rather puzzling, especially when you aren’t accustomed with the area. That is why it’s crucial to weigh your options very carefully before making that huge decision.

There are lots of matters that should be taken into consideration when hunting for household properties in Manila. Primarily, one needs to consider his desired location or area. This will enormously be determined by where you make your business or go to the office. You certainly will also want quick access to facilities like hospitals, schools, and public transport terminals.

You will want to try to find houses in Manila that are near such basic facilities so that you can evade future inconveniences. You should also consider your livelihood interests. If your job or company is based on Quezon City, renting or buying an apartment in Makati is simply unreasonable and may be very undesirable as well. As in any other place, location is still the ultimate deciding aspect when it pertains to the world of Philippines real estate.

Only upon deciding on a location should you decide whether to rent in Manila or invest in your own personal household property. It is usually expensive to possess a property which is situated in major cities like Makati and Ortigas. The large need for houses in Manila located within these places makes it nearly difficult to buy one.

This is largely the factor why lots of young employees and middle-class people believe it is sensible to rent a house or apartment instead. However, you can find cheaper options in the Philippines real estate market. High-rise condo units have become a viable choice for lots of young employees and people in the middle-class. Acquiring a condominium is a lot cheaper and property developers make it an even more appealing choice for consumers by presenting rather flexible monthly payment terms.

Choosing to reside in the many different houses in Manila also has its own advantages as compared to condo or apartment living. The spatial convenience and solitude a real house offers may not be attained in smaller high-rise residential residences. A house, primarily one that’s confined in a private village or subdivision, could be tremendously expensive to own or rent in Manila. Still, the numerous benefits of being in private subdivisions like Bel Air and Dasmarinas Village in Makati and Green Meadows and Valle Verde in Pasig are evident. These private villages feature world-class facilities, something which some other areas do not have.

With plenty of options in the Philippines real estate market, your ultimate decision will most likely be influenced by a couple of primary conditions: budget and location. Regardless if it’s a house in Manila or an apartment for rent on its outskirts, ensure that you’re making the correct decision structured on your own individual priorities and needs.

Is it time to buy? Phoenix Arizona real estate has seen it’s fair share of the good, the bad and the ugly. From the effects of the “Keating Five” to the crash in 2007, Phoenix Arizona home prices have gone up and down like a Teeter Totter at the school playground. One would ask why Phoenix Arizona real estate would be appealing and the answer is resiliency. It has always bounced back. Real estate is a long-term investment and generally speaking losses occur because of an inability to sustain a short period of misfortune.

Like other parts of the country, from 2006 til 2010, Phoenix has seen a significant decline in home prices. Like other parts of the country, Phoenix has seen a drastic increase in foreclosures. Overall, foreclosures have a negative impact on the economy and the emotional impact on the homeowner is immeasurable, but one man’s loss is another man’s gain.

Bank owned real estate presents an excellent opportunity for purchasing a Phoenix home for sale at a reduced price. While some of these homes may require a little ‘TLC’, they do pose a high potential for instant equity.

Don’t over do it. When qualifying utilize the 31/41 qualifying ratios. The mortgage payment should not represent more than 31% of your total salary, and your total debt should not account for more than 41%. Don’t rely on future income.

Reserves, be sure that you maintain two months reserves. This is money saved for a rainy day, or a temporary loss of a job.

While the Phoenix real estate market has fallen, it has shown signs of recovery. Don’t wait to long, if you are thinking of purchasing a new home, now may be a great time.

In today’s real estate market it may seem almost impossible to buy a property, and let alone, sell a property. This is why there are so many different avenues a buyer and seller can take in order to purchase a property, starting from low interest loans, and to a sell a property, ranging from acquiring a real estate agent to for sale by owner. The real argument these days is which avenue will bring the most chance of selling a property. The economy is a very large factor in this process but when selling a property it boils down to one simple thing, exposure.

Many believe that in order to truly get exposure of a property that they will either have to spend endless hours on their computer finding dozens of free websites on the internet that they can submit to in order to market their property, or there is going to be a lot of money involved when selecting one large website to get exposure on. ListingVUE.com doesn’t charge to market on their website and for a very small charge this website markets a property on 10 to 15 additional, high traffic, websites for you. So exposure argument is slowly being overtaken because it is achieved on this website and you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg.

Many people stick to the traditional real estate agent because they know that the results will be achieved, the only downside is, a large percentage will have to be paid to the buyers agent and the sellers agent. What many people don’t realize is they will get hit with double the commissions, and all of this really makes the selling experience rather unpleasant. All of this wouldn’t be a problem if house sales weren’t as low as they were as a result of the soft economy. These days making any money at all on the sale of a property is becoming rare, which is why a lot of people are going the For Sale By Owner route.

Now, whether someone decides to go with a real estate agent or chooses the FSBO route, the main argument that remains is getting exposure. The more times a property is seen on the internet by different sets of eyes the more chances there are of that property, not only getting sold, but getting a better price for that property. This brings us back to marketing properties on numerous websites, a service that ListingVUE.com provides at no charge, to market on 3 additional websites, and at a small charge to market on 10 or 15 additional websites.

At the end of the day, with the real estate market being the way it is, a rather unstable one at that, it all boils down to getting exposure on a property. There are many routes one can choose to market their real estate, but what matters most is which one will be the most cost effective and which one will bring the most results.

 Commercial Real Estate Investing vs. Residential Real Estate

Is commercial real estate investing a better investment than investing in residential real estate? Now, we all know that real estate in general is a great investment vehicle and both residential and commercial properties can be good investments. Either avenue can have a tremendous effect on your net worth, but most people think only of residential property when they think about investing in real estate. While this is certainly the most viable route for most people, commercial property can offer additional benefits that residential real estate can’t.

3 Reasons Commercial Real Estate is better than Residential Real Estate

1.) Commercial Real Estate Gives You More Access to More Capital

        It has been my experience that it is somewhat easier to raise larger amounts of capital (under $ 3M) for a commercial deal than it is to raise $ 150,000 for a residential deal. As a residential investor your access to capital is limited primarily to traditional financing, hard money lenders, and private money from individual investors. If you are unable to raise capital from one of these three avenues, then you are forced to acquire property in more of a creative manner with owner financing, subject to strategies, lease options, etc. This in itself is not a bad thing, but unfortunately you will have to walk away from some good deals that can’t be acquired with creative financing techniques.

       In commercial real estate it is more common for investors to pool their capital together and syndicate deals, you will also find that smaller private equity firms and finance companies are more inclined to do joint venture projects and provide the needed capital to complete the deal if the deal makes sense. So as a commercial real estate investor you have the potential to raise capital for a deal from the same traditional sources as residential real estate i.e. Traditional Financing and Hard Money, but in addition to that you can have access to capital through smaller private equity firms, hedge funds, private REITs, investment groups, etc.

       There also seems to be a sense of intrigue and prestige when it comes to investing in commercial real estate. Perhaps because of the current commercial building market it appears investors are trending to investing in commercial projects.

2.) Commercial Real Estate is Less Competitive

       When you think about it from a marketing perspective, most investors target residential property owners, thus making the residential market more competitive. In many arenas from industry news sources, the World Wide Web, all the “We buy Houses” signs on virtually every city corner, discuss marketing tactics targeting residential property owners. If you take the same marketing strategies discussed and apply them to commercial real estate, you will probably find that you are the ONLY person contacting these commercial property owners in regards to selling their property. Most commercial properties under $ 5 million tend to be too large for most residential investors, yet too small for most institutional investors.

3.) Commercial Real Estate allows for “Forced” Appreciation

      Residential real estate is typically valued based on other comparable properties that have sold in the area that are similar in features. If the “comps” for a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house in a particular neighborhood is roughly $ 100,000, then your property is probably going to be worth $ 100,000. It doesn’t matter too much that you have additional features, or that your house is getting $ 900 a month in rent as opposed to the house down the street that is only renting for $ 700 a month. All things considered, your property will still be valued pretty close to the “comps” of the area.

       However, in commercial real estate, the valuation of a property is based on the revenue that the property generates. Now, commercial real estate is still subject to the “comps” of the area as it pertains to “How” that revenue is valued in terms of capitalization rates. But, the overall premise is that, the more revenue a property generated, the more that property is worth.

       So, in order to “force” the appreciation of your commercial property, you need to find additional ways to increase the revenue that the property generates. A small increase in revenue can increase the value of a property significantly depending on the “Cap Rates” in the area for that type of commercial real estate. Unfortunately, with residential real estate this isn’t an option as you really can’t force appreciation; your property will be valued in the general range of the market comps.

      As you can see, commercial real estate investing offers many benefits over residential real estate in addition to higher returns on your investment. Now of course there are disadvantages with any investment vehicle, commercial real estate included. However, consider the following when choosing between residential or commercial investing to create your passive income stream;

Commercial vs. Residential:My Thoughts on Commercial Real Estate Investing

1) The building qualifies for the loan; Not the borrower
2) The building pays back the loan; Not the borrower
3) Others are expected to manage the building; Not the borrower
4) Income determines the value of the property; Not the comps
5) Cap Rate measures demand for the property; Not the comps.

A commercial property’s value is eternally tied into the income the property produces and the overall demand for the property’s services based on its location & its highest & best use.

Some estimates say that more than 60% of people looking to buy or sell real estate go to the internet first when they begin their search for real estate information. And as agents and brokers become more net-savvy, and more and more people get online, that number will only increase.

That means that the hottest sources of real estate prospects, leads, listings and sales is online. Which obviously means that if you are a Real Estate Agent, or if you provide a real estate service, you need an online presence.

** Establishing an online presence

Most people have no idea how to create an online presence. But the truth is, it is fairly straightforward, once you understand how the internet works.

It’s all about getting traffic to your website, and then having a website attractive enough to attract the attention, and get the responses of your website visitors.

** How do you get traffic?

There are two well established ways to get traffic to your website. Both of them involve the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

The first method is to run advertisements that target the buyers or sellers you want to reach. There is no better way to advertise than by using paid search advertising — what is called “pay-per-click” advertising.

The second method is to promote your website so it comes up high in searches. Most people begin their search for real estate information by typing a search term into their favorite search engine. The list of possible sources that the search engine gives you is called “natural” or “free” results. You place high in these searches by impressing the search engines with the importance of your site. When you come up in the first few spots in “free” searches, you are virtually guaranteed to get “free” traffic — because people will click on your link and be taken to your site.

** Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Most real estate agents are used to traditional advertising methods such as running ads in real estate publications. And they think it is necessary to pay between $250-$750 for one insertion that may or may not bring them any responses. That is the major problem with traditional advertising — it is expensive, and it gives you no guarantee of response.

But pay-per-click advertising is different. On the one hand it can be targeted to reach the precise target segment you want to reach — for instance, people looking for real estate in your town or city.

On the other hand, you only pay for “clicks” when someone who is potentially interested in your service clicks on your ad and visits your website. This is the revolutionary advertising concept that has made Google the hottest and most dominant player on the web.

But pay-per-click advertising can also be expensive and difficult to manage. Fortunately there are ways of establishing an online presence without paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month.

** Search engine marketing – Search Engine Optimization

As mentioned earlier, the other way to generate online traffic is to promote your site so it comes up high in organic or free searches. This is called “search engine marketing” and involves two important components.

First, it involves creating a website that makes it very clear who your prospective visitors might be. This process is called “search engine optimization”. You “optimize” your site to include as many references as possible to the subject matter you want to focus on, and the target market you want to reach.

For instance, if you are trying to reach potential home buyers in Sarasota, Florida, then you must make it clear that your site is about “real estate in Sarasota.” You must build as much content into your site about Sarasota as you can.

Since most online business people do not know the “tricks of the trade” when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), they hire an expert who does. Unfortunately there are no guarantees when it comes to search engine optimization. Even with sites that have been highly optimized there is no guarantee that the search engines will reward you with a high ranking. Nevertheless, it is an important exercise to go through, and is one of the foundations on which to build your search engine marketing.

** Search engine marketing – Linking

The other component of search engine marketing is to get lots of “inbound links” pointing to your site from other sites. An inbound link is a link on someone else’s site that makes a reference to yours.

Links give you two important sources of traffic. First, visitors to the sites where your links are found may actually click on those links and visit your site. This is especially the case if your links are on high traffic pages that are highly relevant to your service.

Second, inbound links impress the search engines. When the search engines find lots of links to your site in various places around the web, they interpret this as an indicator of the importance of your website. And that in turn results in the search engines rewarding you with higher rankings in free or organic searches.

Inevitably that results in traffic. And if your website is written to get results, traffic should convert to sales.

If all of this sounds a bit overwhelming, it is best not to simply throw up your hands in despair and concede all of those potential online customers to your net savvy colleagues. The fact is there are very inexpensive ways to cash in on all that online gold. You just have to keep looking until you find the right people to work with.