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Puerto Vallarta Real Estate

Predictions for the 2014 Housing Market?

Predictions for the 2014 Housing Market

With 2014 having finally come around, we’re poised at the start of what could be another healthy year for the housing market.

While many of us were naturally attuned to questions of a slowdown, or dangerous escalation in prices, it seems that the housing market has weathered its recovery with stability for the time being.

That being said, it remains to determine how the recovery will manifest through the next twelve months. Assuming the housing market continues to grow until the close of 2014, there are certain potential trends that could unfold. A recent article published by USA Today lays out a series of predictions for this year’s housing market, with some of them a continuation of prior trends, while others are potentially new developments.

Continuing Trends

In tandem with what I’d noted in a prior post, the USA Today piece predicts that new home construction will continue with relative strength throughout this year. The story rightfully notes that new home construction has lagged behind other areas of the property sector, but lays out that home starts could strengthen to the point where they become a driving factor in the recovery. The USA Today post goes as far as to predict that new construction may be main driving force of recovery, especially considering price gains may shrink.

As an inverse, it seems that home sales have started to slow and may continue to do so throughout the rest of this year. As the USA Today report notes, they were down for the first time year-over-year last November, which was the first time this had occurred in 29 months. This trend could continue well through this New Year, with elevated interest rates set to encourage a pattern of more cautious buying. All in all, homebuying levels will likely normalize, with purchase ..

Check Your Emotions At The Door, Newbies!

Emotion

As a beginning real estate investor, and even now, I realize the WORST mistakes that I suffered through occurred because of emotion-based decisions. I’m an emotional temperament, which means I can get caught up in the fervor more so than most. However, as I learn from my previous mistakes and lessons, I see that even though I remain emotional in my private life, I have become more and more emotionless in my real estate investing, and its been all for the better.

Check out the Video

Its Not YOUR Home

The biggest area that I was sucked into, as well as other new investors, is trying to buy in the place we want to live.

Now, on the surface that’s not an automatic disclaimer, but a deeper look shows that the hottest place to live in town doesn’t always translate into a good real estate investment.

Yes, you can picture yourself nesting and inviting friends over, and walking to the local bar scene, but that doesn’t translate into a sound investment all the time. Always keep looking at the numbers, and choose strategically. The numbers should tell the story, and you have to put the nice shining house behind the one with the dirty carpets that need to be replaced, if the former gives you negative a cash flow and the latter positive.

Putting In The Wrong Tenants

Boy, have I made this mistake many times before before I wised up. Seriously, tenants I am a little embarrassed to tell other people I use, just because I was desperate for money. I mean, I had spent all this time and money, and I had to prove to myself and everyone else i could rent it out.

Big mistake!!

I put in tenants with shaky work history, and some tenants I didn’t really like, just ..

How to Flip and Grow Rich in 2014

Post image for How to Flip and Grow Rich in 2014

The single most important factor in house flipping success is not what you probably think it would be.

It’s not finding the right property…nor is it negotiating the sales price…nor is it controlling your renovation costs, nor is it avoiding the really bad deals…

Although all of those are important, none are the most important.

Far and away, the most important factor to house flipping success is the right mindset. Or as I like to refer to it, “the house flipping mindset”.

The House Flipping Mindset “Secret”

We talked about “house flipping secrets” last week…but this is not about any of that.

This is THE Secret – the movie from a few years back that was a huge sensation around the world which popularized “the law of attraction” and other concepts about the power of the mind. Thanks to this movie, millions of people became aware of this power, introducing them for the first time many of these concepts which have been around for some time.

Although the movie hits on many important aspects of success – and does work quite well in assisting any would be house flipper to achieve unprecedented success – it was not the first book of its kind to discuss the importance of mindset when achieving success.

“The Secret” borrowed most of its content from many philosophers and self-help books, including Wallace Wattles “The Science of Getting Rich” and my personal favorite, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.

This one book hugely influenced my career and its one I refer back to often – especially at the beginning of a New Year to reinforce the house flipping mindset and to remind me exactly how to flip and grow rich.

The basic idea is that ..

Hate Your House Payment? Here’s How One Man Used Creativity to Get Others to Pay His Mortgage – And the Result Changed His Life Forever

Renting Rooms

The following is a guest post from Mike from RentingOutRooms.com. In this post, Mike shares with us the strategy he used to pay his way through college using creative real estate investing. While this path may not fit for everyone, it’s another tool to add to your investor toolbox that may come in handy for you or a friend/family member in the future. Don’t forget to leave a comment below the post and share this on your Facebook wall!

Renting Out Rooms to Create Unlimited Possibilities

I didn’t have the intention of renting out rooms when I first bought my house.

I simply bought it because I thought it would be a better alternative to renting. The idea of renting out a room first materialized when I decided to attend graduate school and was faced with the choice of taking on additional student debt or trying to make more money to pay for tuition.

Because I already had a decent chunk from my undergraduate studies, taking out more loans was at way in the back of my head. Although, it would have been the easiest (just simply sign a bunch of papers), but in the long run it would have been the more expensive option.

The Extra Room

I was living by myself in a two-bedroom house. Needless the say, the other room wasn’t being utilized. With an extra room going empty, I thought about the prospect of renting it out to a roommate to make more money.

After sleeping on it for a few days, the decision boiled down to either: get a roommate and make more money or take on student loan debt and dig myself out.

The decision was simple. I needed to get a roommate.

I first thought about having a friend rent a room from me, but then I thought about ..

Is Leveraging Really That Risky?

hmmm

I’d say one of the most famous debates that comes up on this website is the one about paying all cash for a property versus leveraging a property.

And by famous I mean, it gets ugly.

The heart of the debate seems to center around the difference in risk in buying a property using all cash or buying a property using leveraging. Those who leverage their properties boast that the benefit of doing so allows the investor to buy more properties with the same amount of money. Those who pay cash come back against that argument saying how risky leveraging is and that the risk isn’t worth it, even if it does get you more properties. From what I can tell, this point in the debate seems to always be the point of impasse between the sides. Being able to buy more properties by using leverage is an indisputable fact. Leveraging inducing more risk seems indisputable. So then, everyone stops debating at that point and goes about their merry ways.

I think this is the wrong place for the impasse. Being able to buy more properties using leverage, yes, that is correct. But leveraging being riskier?

Is it?

For any newbies out there, “leveraging” refers to using ‘someone else’s money’ to buy something. That can include loans from a bank, loans from an individual, financing on a credit card, borrowing money, etc.

For the purpose of what we are talking about here, I’m going to stick with referring mostly to mortgages. A mortgage isn’t the only way to finance a property but it’s the primary one and a lot easier and more common than other methods. For the purpose of this article, I’m thinking mostly about mortgages because I want to look at long-term loans rather ..

How to Create a Google Plus Page for your Real Estate Business

Google Plus

If there was an awesomely powerful creation that dominated the lower minions, Google would be the Megatron of the internet.

If you’re fairly new to social media, Google plus might sound like one of those newer trends that you don’t really think you need to add to your plate. However, when you make a Google plus page, you’re really creating broad opportunities throughout Googles reach. This in turn is going to help rank you higher in Googles search engine. Not to mention, people will be able to map your business’ location with directions just by looking up your company’s name. These are huge benefit for any business owner, especially if you are budding or growing real estate professional.

Creating a Google Plus Page

To begin, you’ll need to have a personal profile in Google. Just by having a gmail address, you can create a G+ profile.

From your personal profile, click on “pages” in the left hand menu, to start.

Next, you’ll need to decide what category you want to use to showcase your business. If you don’t have people come to your office, you may not want to list an address. If you do have a retail place of business, you’ll probably choose “local business or store.” You can assist Google by entering the phone number of your business, confirm it’s correct, and have the location confirmed on the map as well. You’ll also want to enter in the link to your website and agree on the terms and conditions if you care to. After that, you will have a Google Plus page!

Very much like the last post, How to Create a Facebook Page for your Real Estate business, you’ll now want to fill in the information on your G+ page. ..

Kiplinger: Buying a Vacation Home: Tax Advantages

From kiplinger.com finanacial specialists… some interesting information for buyers in our puerto vallarta market in particular… Tax implications and financing options for purchasing a second home are different from your main residence. There are lots of good reasons to want a vacation home, and hardly any of them are financial. There are psychological reasons, emotional…