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Archive for June, 2010

Reasons to Invest in Commercial Real Estate

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

While residential investing tactics are well known to many property investors, many still do not know about why they should, or how to, invest in commercial real estate. If you mention real estate investment to most people you will most likely find yourself in a conversation dominated by reality TV fueled residential real estate moves.

Commercial real estate comes in many forms and is simply any property that is owned with the sole purpose of creating income for the owners. While single-family residential homes do technically fit the bill, they are not commonly considered to be commercial investments. Office buildings, apartment complexes, land, hotels and other types of property are what we are looking at here when we are learning about how to invest in commercial buildings – apartments, shopping centers, office space, and strip malls.

Commercial real estate has an advantage over residential in that its value is not based on comparison sales. Just because an office building down the street went for $1 million doesn’t mean yours will too. When you invest in commercial property, you do so based on the income it creates. Thus, if you want to increase the value of your property you simply find a way to increase income. This can be done by increasing revenues like rents, storage fees, vending, or laundry or decreasing expenses like maintenance, mortgages or interest.

Commercial buildings with a unique set of challenges and benefits. Like any other investment you must weigh your risk tolerance, money and time you have available for investment and what the market place is doing. Commercial real estate investing is the “big time” that most part time amateurs graduate to after they have dabbled in residential real estate investment. Investors find the ability to manipulate value through increasing income, diversification of risk through many tenants and better leverage all as reasons to leave the residential game to amateurs and reality TV stars.

Things to Know about Home Inspection

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

Home inspection is not just done by anybody in the neighborhood. It has to be conducted by home inspectors who have knowledge about the criteria in inspecting the house. So, what the inspectors do is to prepare a written report using home inspection software. The report would cover things about the condition of the heating and the conditioning system of the house, the electrical systems as well as the plumbing system. From the outside, the inspector also makes a report about the physical structure of the roof, the rooms, the attic and the foundation of the house. From this, we can see that only experts who have enough knowledge of the technicalities of the house can only do it.

For most people, buying a house is not something that they can decide on just off the rack. It takes a lot of time and money for them to buy their own house and it could be one of the biggest investments they could make in their entire lives. Thus, it is just right that a home inspection is conducted before buying it to free ourselves from the unexpected surprises and the unpleasant difficulties of the house. After the home inspection is conducted, that would be the best time to decide whether to buy the house or not.

However, what are the things that we have to take note when requesting for a home inspector? Home owners or home buyers have to make a checklist of the things that the home inspector has to take note. The important things that have to be in the report are the plumbing system, the structural elements, and the exterior evaluation of the house, the roofing and the attic. Apart from that, the home inspector has to take note of the condition of the electrical system too. These things have to be all included in the report. Home buyers have to remember that plumbing system and the electrical system are the basics that they have to pay attention as it spells out the safety of the people living in the house.