Buy Or Rent?

Should you buy or rent? It depends on your circumstances, and the real estate market where you are going to live. Years ago, I sold a home for a young couple who owed almost as much as the sales price on their house. They needed to take money from savings to pay the closing costs and sales commission. You can bet that they wished they had rented for the couple years they lived there.

This brings up the first thing to consider when comparing buying versus renting: the amount of time you’ll be there. Buying and later selling a home will usually cost about 10%PRCTG% or more of the value of the home. These costs mean that if the home only went up in value 10%PRCTG% or so in the year or two you lived there, you won’t be gaining anything (equity gain from principal pay-down is very little in the first years). You’ll often be better off renting if you’ll be in a town for less than a few years.

Less people are renting homes in Europe

Over the last 20 years there have been significant changes in the choices people are making in whether they wish to rent or own their house, flat or apartment. In the early 1980’s West European countries averaged between 50%PRCTG% and 60%PRCTG% of homes owner occupied as opposed to rented. However as years progress into the early 2000s there have been some very significant changes with most countries seeing a significant reduction in the number of properties rented. Some of the most significant changes in the percentage of properties rented in Western Europe are:

From 1980/81 to 2001/02

UK from 42%PRCTG% to 30%PRCTG%; Luxembourg from 39%PRCTG% to 26%PRCTG%; Netherlands from 58%PRCTG% to 46%PRCTG%; Spain from 21%PRCTG% to 11%PRCTG%.

One possibility for this trend is the increasing standards of living combined with market changes improving the choice and availability of financial products to purchase properties. However also to be considered is the very significant differences when comparisons are made across countries. Below is a summary of the most recent data found on the percentage of homes rented for each country.

Imagine a beautiful desert oasis, where you’re completely surrounded by sand, palm trees and cacti. If this sounds like your dream home then why not look into obtaining Arizona ranch land for sale? There are a lot of people that are completely oblivious to all of the features that Arizona has to offer.

Not only can you obtain Prescott Arizona land for sale at an extremely reasonable rate, the land is unlike anything that you have ever feasted your eyes upon. In fact, statistics have shown that there are more people that are opting to move from their present place of residence to Arizona in order to take advantage of the 300 days of sunlight and the rich land that is available for the taking.

Northern Arizona land for sale will actually put you right in the middle of all four seasons. Contrary to belief, northern Arizona does receive snow and it does experience all four seasons. Inadvertently, the amount of snow that you can expect to receive in northern Arizona will still be progressively less than the amount of snow that you can expect to obtain in Northern states.

Buy to Let Rental Property

Condotel Investments in the Philippines, Buy to Let rental properties are now being preferred to failing Pension Plans as more and more Filipinos and Overseas Property Investors look to the future and retirement.

20 Dollars a day for 6 years will buy you a Studio Condotel unit in the Philippines with a projected ROI through rentals of some 500 dollars per month after 3 years. With preconstruction property appreciating at some 20-30%PRCTG% per annum not only does the Real Estate Appreciation look good but the rental income is in excess of what many Pension Plans offer for the same or similar investment.

With many Overseas Filipinos and Offshore Property Investors looking to start saving for retirement, the Philippines with its comparative low cost of real estate yet high rates of Hotel Accommodations, make the Condotel investment an extremely attractive investment proposition.

Beth Collingz, International Marketing Director for PLC Global, a company specializing in Condo Hotel Sales and Investments in the Philippines for the Lancaster Brand of Condotels, said that many new investors are looking to replace failed pension plans and other future saving schemes with a solid investment in Real Estate.

Renting ? Making Other People Rich

Many renters say they prefer to rent because it is simple and doesn?t carry the stress of home ownership. In truth, they are simply making other people rich.

Equity

What if I told you that if you purchased a home, you wouldn?t have to make any monthly payments on it? On top of this, I?d promise you that when the house was sold, you would get to keep all of the equity gain in the home. Sound like a pipe dream? This is exactly what renters are doing for their landlords.

Regardless of how you break down a renting versus homeownership argument, there is one universal fact. If you rent, you are building equity for your landlord. Let?s take a look at a simple example.

Assume you rent a unit in a duplex and pay %1,000 a month for it. Assume further that you live in the unit for three years. During this period, you will have paid your landlord a total of %36,000. You can further assume that your landlord?s mortgage payment was less than %36,000 or he would raise your month payment. The end all effect of this situation is you have paid his mortgage for three years. Think about that for a minute.

Apartment for Rent ? When Is It Better to Rent Instead of Buy?

It was 5:00 PM and time for Susan to call it quits for the day. While signing off the computer, a last-minute check of the traffic reports revealed that the roads were backed up again. Susan drove home against the commute feeling her daily rush of sympathy for all those on the other side of the road stopped in traffic.

Ten minutes later, she drove past a golf course and pulled into home. The flowers were especially lovely this month and the fountain sparkled as it reflected the brilliant colors of the foliage. She drove past the landscaped grounds, pool and through the security gates that swung open with her security access.

What would it be tonight, a cardio work-out? No, she?d invited Steve over for some tennis. After a pleasant game, they?d head back to her place, fix dinner in her gourmet kitchen and eat on the balcony at tree level while the evening breeze rustled the nearby leaves. To wind down, they?d take a dip in one of the pools and relax in the Jacuzzi in the evening air. Maybe tomorrow night they could hit a few balls at the nearby course or check out one of the nearby art galleries.

Real Estate Rentals - Selling For More

Selling real estate rentals isn’t like selling houses. You can paint a house, and get a little more because it looks nice. Rental properties, especially larger ones, are different, because they’re bought by investors, who look at income more than new paint. Raise the income, and you increase value to investors.

Time to learn about capitalization rates. If investors in your area expect a capitalization rate of .08 it means they want a net return (before loan payments and taxes) of 8%PRCTG% on the purchase price. So if your three-plex generates %12,000 net income annually, they’ll value it around %150,000 (%12,000 divided by .08). If you can make it generate %16,000, you make it worth %200,000.

More Income From Real Estate Rentals

Raising rents is the obvious way to boost income, if you can justify it. See what similar units are renting for. If your units are %60 below the going rate, you can raise the rents and not lose your renters. Increasing the rent %60 for three apartments means %2160 more net income annually. With a .08 cap rate, you just added %27,000 to the value of your property.

?Renting Back? After Your Home Is Sold

Sometimes it?s helpful to sell your home before you really want to move. This often happens when you are having a new home built, but aren?t sure of the completion date. Is there any way you can sell your home so you?re sure of the funds available for the new purchase, but continue to live in your old home until construction of the new one is complete. Yes, there is with the renting back strategy.

Enter the Lease-Back or Rent-Back Agreement

The particulars of this strategy vary from state to state, but in the strong seller?s market we?re experiencing, buyers will often agree to let the seller stay in the home for a period of time as long as rent is paid. In a competitive situation, the buyer willing to do this will often have the winning bid even though there is another offer as high as his.

Houston Rental Apartments

The city of Houston in the State of Texas is the fourth largest city and one of the most bustling in the United States. With several apartments sprawled across its length, Houston is a prime location for people looking forward to settle down in a cozy dwelling with all the facilities that they wanted. Finding Houston apartments for rent is not a big hassle if the person knows where to look for one. There are several apartment finders operating in every area of the city, which provide one with all the details of the available apartments, such as the facilities, rent, etc. Houston apartments for rent generally provide settlers with the most modern and necessary facilities and amenities. House security is an important issue and the apartments are frequently packed with state-of-the-art security systems to ensure safety for the dwellers. Most of the apartments in the area are equipped with a swimming pool, and some of them even provide pool lifeguards in case of any trouble. Besides these, Houston apartments for rent provide other services as well, such as fitness and health clubs, shopping centers, proper parking places, meeting and convention centers, laundry services, sports grounds, etc.

Playing The Real Estate Rental Game

Real estate investing is a game. To play it well you must understand the four financial benefits of real estate and how to maximize them. Those benefits are:

1. Cash flow
2. Equity build up (the payoff of your loan)
3. Tax benefits
4. Potential appreciation

In this article we are going to look at benefit number one.

Benefit number one ? Cash Flow (cash flow before tax).

Investing in real state is game of numbers. To play the game well you must understand how to manipulate the numbers to get the end results you want. The result being positive cash flow.

The formula to calculate the cash flow is listed below:

Gross Rental Income
Minus: Vacancy
Equals: Adjusted Gross Income
Minus: Operating Expenses
Equals: Net Operating Income
Minus: Debt Service Payments
Equals: Cash Flow Before Taxes

Here is an explanation of each of the factors in the formula above.

Gross rental income is the first number that you need. It includes all the rents and any other miscellaneous income from garage rents, laundry machines or vending machine. This number is that total income that we expect to get during the year.