Real estate investing is one of the best ways available to make money, but unfortunately many people think that getting started requires having a great deal of money. Believe it or not, almost anyone who has the ingenuity and determination needed can be successful as a real estate investor. There is great money to be made out in the real estate investment market and you do not need millions of dollars to get started.
Although there is a great deal of money to be made in real estate investing, there are many people who are very hesitant to get started in this field. No doubt you have probably heard various stories about others who have been extremely successful in this type of a business, but you may have heard some negative stories as well. Usually, the negative stories are actually about people who did not know what they were doing when they first got started in the business.
Real estate investing is such a great field because not only can it appreciate in value, but it can also be used as a source of monthly income as well. If you decide to pick a fixer-upper, you may spend your free time working on it to increase the value and you can also get great tax benefits as well. So it all sounds great, but why are more people not taking advantage of this money making business? Most of the time the answer is a lack of knowledge in how to get started. If you are interested in getting started as a real estate investor, then read on for great tips that can help you out.
Do Your Research
Before you even get started as a real estate investor it is important that you become as well informed as you possibly can. Read books, magazines, and online articles to help familiarize yourself with this market. The more you know and understand, the easier it will be to get started yourself.
Have a Team
The reason that many new real estate investors fail is because they forget the importance of working with other people. If you want to get started in real estate investing you need to have a team that includes a lawyer, ad loan officer, tax advisor, and possibly someone to help you find great profitable assets. Having a team like this established can help make the whole process much quicker and easier and you will be much more successful as well.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
U.S. Office Vacancies Reach Five-Year High of 16.5%, Reis Says
Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. office vacancies rose to a five- year high in the third quarter, as job losses deepened and employers abandoned space in the recession, property research firm Reis Inc. said.
Vacancies climbed to 16.5 percent from 13.7 percent in the year since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, New York-based Reis said in a report. Effective rents, the amount actually paid by tenants, fell 8.5 percent, the biggest year-over-year drop since 1995.
“The decline in effective rents really accelerated after the fall of Lehman Brothers,” Victor Calanog, director of research at Reis, said in a statement. “Tenants will continue shedding occupied space as jobs are lost.”
U.S. job losses accelerated in September and the unemployment rate climbed to 9.8 percent, the highest level since 1983. Payrolls dropped by 263,000, bringing total jobs lost since the recession began to 7.2 million, the biggest decline since the Great Depression. The BBREIT Office Property Index of 14 stocks lost 14.31 percent in the 12 months through yesterday.
Financial firms cut more than 180,000 jobs in the Americas in the credit crisis that brought down or forced the sales of Bear Stearns Cos., Washington Mutual Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers.
The three months ended Sept. 30 marked the seventh straight quarter in which landlords reported a net loss in the amount of space occupied by tenants. About 19.6 million more square feet were vacant than in the previous quarter, Reis said.
Second-Worst Year
The U.S. is on pace for its second-worst year in terms of net office absorption since at least 1980, the beginning of Reis’s records, Calanog said.
The national vacancy rate was 15.9 percent in the second quarter.
New York vacancies jumped to 11.4 percent in the third quarter from 6.6 percent a year earlier, and the city’s effective rents tumbled 18.5 percent, Reis said.
The drop in rents is about twice the decline New York experienced in 2002, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Rents fell 9.3 percent that year, Calanog said.
The collapse of Seattle-based Washington Mutual helped drive that city’s office vacancy rate to 14 percent in the third quarter from 10 percent a year earlier. Effective rents fell almost 11 percent, Reis said.
WaMu collapsed in September of 2008 as federal regulators seized its banking unit and sold its assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, San Jose and Southern California’s Orange County all reported declines in effective rents of at least 10 percent from a year earlier, Reis said.
“Weakness in rents is not concentrated in just a few” cities, Calanog said. “We have yet to observe clear, systematic evidence that the office market is bottoming out.”
Vacancies climbed to 16.5 percent from 13.7 percent in the year since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, New York-based Reis said in a report. Effective rents, the amount actually paid by tenants, fell 8.5 percent, the biggest year-over-year drop since 1995.
“The decline in effective rents really accelerated after the fall of Lehman Brothers,” Victor Calanog, director of research at Reis, said in a statement. “Tenants will continue shedding occupied space as jobs are lost.”
U.S. job losses accelerated in September and the unemployment rate climbed to 9.8 percent, the highest level since 1983. Payrolls dropped by 263,000, bringing total jobs lost since the recession began to 7.2 million, the biggest decline since the Great Depression. The BBREIT Office Property Index of 14 stocks lost 14.31 percent in the 12 months through yesterday.
Financial firms cut more than 180,000 jobs in the Americas in the credit crisis that brought down or forced the sales of Bear Stearns Cos., Washington Mutual Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers.
The three months ended Sept. 30 marked the seventh straight quarter in which landlords reported a net loss in the amount of space occupied by tenants. About 19.6 million more square feet were vacant than in the previous quarter, Reis said.
Second-Worst Year
The U.S. is on pace for its second-worst year in terms of net office absorption since at least 1980, the beginning of Reis’s records, Calanog said.
The national vacancy rate was 15.9 percent in the second quarter.
New York vacancies jumped to 11.4 percent in the third quarter from 6.6 percent a year earlier, and the city’s effective rents tumbled 18.5 percent, Reis said.
The drop in rents is about twice the decline New York experienced in 2002, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Rents fell 9.3 percent that year, Calanog said.
The collapse of Seattle-based Washington Mutual helped drive that city’s office vacancy rate to 14 percent in the third quarter from 10 percent a year earlier. Effective rents fell almost 11 percent, Reis said.
WaMu collapsed in September of 2008 as federal regulators seized its banking unit and sold its assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, San Jose and Southern California’s Orange County all reported declines in effective rents of at least 10 percent from a year earlier, Reis said.
“Weakness in rents is not concentrated in just a few” cities, Calanog said. “We have yet to observe clear, systematic evidence that the office market is bottoming out.”
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Hong Kong Mortgage Rates May Start Rising Mid-2010, HSBC Says
Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’s mortgage rates, at their lowest in at least 19 years, may begin rising in the middle of next year, according to the head of the city’s second-biggest home-loan provider.
Increasing mortgage rates “will be quite difficult in the next few months because of what’s happened in the U.S.,” Peter Wong, head of HSBC Holdings Plc’s Hong Kong and China unit, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “It’ll go up gradually, probably sometime during the middle of next year.”
Lenders including Bank of East Asia Ltd. and Standard Chartered Plc are offering home-buyers borrowing costs as low as 3.25 percentage points less than the benchmark rate for mortgages. Such “intense price competition” isn’t sustainable and may erode the industry’s profit margins and increase risks, the city’s central bank said last month.
Hong Kong banks’ prime rates are currently about 475 to 500 basis points above the Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate, compared with an average spread of about 390 basis points over the past five years, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
The Asian city’s interest rates normally follow that of the U.S. as the two currencies are pegged. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week said joblessness would remain above 9 percent through next year, indicating the central bank wouldn’t move quickly to raise rates and drain cash from the economy.
The decline in Hong Kong mortgage rates has spurred a recovery in the housing market. Hong Kong home prices are up 26 percent this year, erasing losses posted between the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. on Sept. 15, 2008, and the end of last year, according to the weekly Centa-City Leading Index.
HSBC has the second-biggest market share for mortgages in the city, accounting for 19.3 percent as of September, data compiled by Hong Kong-based mReferral Mortgage Brokerage Services show. It trails BOC Hong Kong Holdings Ltd., which has 20.6 percent of the market. Hang Seng Bank Ltd., a unit of HSBC, is third with 10.4 percent.
Increasing mortgage rates “will be quite difficult in the next few months because of what’s happened in the U.S.,” Peter Wong, head of HSBC Holdings Plc’s Hong Kong and China unit, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “It’ll go up gradually, probably sometime during the middle of next year.”
Lenders including Bank of East Asia Ltd. and Standard Chartered Plc are offering home-buyers borrowing costs as low as 3.25 percentage points less than the benchmark rate for mortgages. Such “intense price competition” isn’t sustainable and may erode the industry’s profit margins and increase risks, the city’s central bank said last month.
Hong Kong banks’ prime rates are currently about 475 to 500 basis points above the Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate, compared with an average spread of about 390 basis points over the past five years, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
The Asian city’s interest rates normally follow that of the U.S. as the two currencies are pegged. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week said joblessness would remain above 9 percent through next year, indicating the central bank wouldn’t move quickly to raise rates and drain cash from the economy.
The decline in Hong Kong mortgage rates has spurred a recovery in the housing market. Hong Kong home prices are up 26 percent this year, erasing losses posted between the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. on Sept. 15, 2008, and the end of last year, according to the weekly Centa-City Leading Index.
HSBC has the second-biggest market share for mortgages in the city, accounting for 19.3 percent as of September, data compiled by Hong Kong-based mReferral Mortgage Brokerage Services show. It trails BOC Hong Kong Holdings Ltd., which has 20.6 percent of the market. Hang Seng Bank Ltd., a unit of HSBC, is third with 10.4 percent.
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