How Much Is Your Property Actually Worth?
Have you ever really wondered exactly what your property is worth? Do you just guesstimate the value? Well, here are some snippets from a great post I'd like to share with you today that really helps in this area of determining exactly what your property is worth! ...
Have you ever really wondered exactly what your property is worth? Do you just guesstimate the value? Well, here are some snippets from a great post I’d like to share with you today that really helps in this area of determining exactly what your property is worth! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! There are essentially three main methods of determining value. They are: The CMA method The CMA (Comparable Market Analysis) method is based on what similar or comparable properties have sold for in the past, typically within the last three months. The Income Approach The Income Approach method of valuation puts a value on the income generated from the property. This is the valuation method investors use most when evaluating an income property. The Replacement Cost The Replacement Cost method of valuation is simply what it would cost to buy the land today and build a new building with the same square footage with similar features. You can read the entire post here. If you’d like help with this, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me any time at 604-882-6901. Sincerely, Michael Ponte, President & Founder Prosperity Real Estate Investments Phone: 604-882-6901 Tweet Share <g:plusone size="small" href="http://www.prosperityinvestments.ca/?p=531" count="true"></g:plusone> Pin It <su:badge layout="1"></su:badge>
Part of being a Prosperous Investor means monitoring your market to understand what stage of the cycle you are in. This is YOUR investment; YOUR business, so there are certain steps you need to take to ensure success (and not failure!) One thing you must do is track rental rates on ...
Part of being a Prosperous Investor means monitoring your market to understand what stage of the cycle you are in. This is YOUR investment; YOUR business, so there are certain steps you need to take to ensure success (and not failure!) One thing you must do is track rental rates on a monthly basis and always ensure that you are getting your full increases. Work with your financial institutions to help you look at ways to improve your cash flow position. Most banks won’t drop the monthly payment of your mortgage if the interest rate goes down. What happens is more money is paying down the principle with less going to interest. This way reducing your term of your mortgage faster, for example, 30 years would become 28 years. If cash flow is important see the bank and have them drop the payment to reflect the current rate. If you’ve been paying a mortgage for 5 – 10 years you may want to extend the amortization to a full term reducing your mortgage. Again, if cash flow is an issue it may make more sense for you to pay a penalty to increase your cash flow. I’ve had clients in this situation and losing $200.00 per month on their property. By switching the mortgage and paying the penalty they were put back into a positive position of over $175 per month. It’s all about Cash Flow.  Treat your real estate as a business and adapt to ensure your business is profitable. If you have questions on this, or anything related to your real estate investing business, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. Sincerely, Michael Ponte, President & Founder Prosperity Real Estate Investments Phone: 604-882-6901 Tweet Share <g:plusone size="small" href="http://www.prosperityinvestments.ca/?p=505" count="true"></g:plusone> Pin It <su:badge layout="1"></su:badge>
Increase Cash Flow in your Real Estate Business
I'm often asked, "Mike how do I increase my cash flow on my property (or properties)?" Here are two methods I can offer you to help improve your cash flow! 1. Have a Competent Management Team The #1 Reason a property struggles is because of poor management. Is it time to Hire ...
I’m often asked, “Mike how do I increase my cash flow on my property (or properties)?” Here are two methods I can offer you to help improve your cash flow! 1. Have a Competent Management Team The #1 Reason a property struggles is because of poor management. Is it time to Hire a property manager, or perhaps Fire a property manager? If things aren’t being run properly you SHOULD know and make decisions accordingly. Run your Property as a Business. Review the income statement and look for issues. Is property generating proper rent? The better you run you’re business, the stronger the investments will be. 2. Reducing Expenses / Costs Look at your current mortgage rate and term for savings. Challenging your property taxes to reassess if you believe the value is to high. Renegotiate terms with your property manager to have his fee reduced for a term commitment. Have tenants pay utilities instead of incurring this expense every month. Have a contractor as part of your team instead of property manager contractor. Instead of having your property manager hire someone to fix things (and obviously up-charge you) have a contractor on your speed dial to take care of those things directly! These are money saving tips that could add up to big dollar amounts at the end of every year. For more information on how to run a successful real estate investing business please don’t hesitate to contact me either by email, or give me a call at 604-882-6901. Sincerely, Michael Ponte, President & Founder Prosperity Real Estate Investments Phone: 604-882-6901 Tweet Share <g:plusone size="small" href="http://www.prosperityinvestments.ca/?p=484" count="true"></g:plusone> Pin It <su:badge layout="1"></su:badge>
Here is some great studying ideas that we recommend towards furthering your career in real estate investing. Why not study real estate investing at home this summer, without having to travel, in the comfort of your own surroundings, and with the added convenience of hitting the replay button whenever you ...
Here is some great studying ideas that we recommend towards furthering your career in real estate investing. Why not study real estate investing at home this summer, without having to travel, in the comfort of your own surroundings, and with the added convenience of hitting the replay button whenever you want? REIN™’s top-rated two-day live seminars are also available as Home Study Courses, with professionally recorded audio and all the high-quality printed materials from the live events. Plus, you get bonus materials too! Click here to find out how you can go to school while staying home! Or how about this idea, do you ever wonder which Canadian cities possess the best potential returns for real estate investors? Are you concerned about finding the cash to continue putting down payments on the investment properties you plan on purchasing? Click here for just a sample of the in-depth research reports that REIN™ produces to educate and support investors as they build long-term, sustainable wealth through real estate. We hope you get great enjoyment and information from these resources this summer! Sincerely, Michael Ponte, President & Founder Prosperity Real Estate Investments Phone: 604-882-6901 Tweet Share <g:plusone size="small" href="http://www.prosperityinvestments.ca/?p=471" count="true"></g:plusone> Pin It <su:badge layout="1"></su:badge>
Or is it? If cash flow is the ONLY thing you are considering when investing in real estate perhaps you're not seeing the big picture. Of course that is one aspect of it; however, it is perhaps not the MAIN aspect! Here's a great article I'd like to share with you ...
Or is it? If cash flow is the ONLY thing you are considering when investing in real estate perhaps you’re not seeing the big picture. Of course that is one aspect of it; however, it is perhaps not the MAIN aspect! Here’s a great article I’d like to share with you on how to determine if your property has a positive cash flow (thank you to therealestaterenegades.com for letting us share). “Basing your entire decision on the answer to positive cash flow question is a very limited way to look at an investment. There are several things Canadian real estate investing beginners need to consider. How much money are you putting down on the home? Most Canadian real estate investing beginners don’t realize that it’s only been since about 2006 you can buy an investment property with 10% or sometimes even 5% in Canada. Today Canadian real estate investing beginners have the opportunity to buy investment property with 10% down or even 5% down (even 0% down!) using standard mortage programs offered by Canadian banks (no funky hard money loans or vendor take backs – although these can be extremely useful and we’ll discuss them in another article).There are a few other things to consider. Like, what are your financial goals? Are you leveraging yourself for maximum advantage? Are you using tax deductions like you should? Are you forgetting that the mortgage is being paid down every month? Let’s take a look at this more closely… Let’s use a $250,000 property and assume that you have $55,000 to invest in real estate. We could use a property of less value but a starter home for $250,000 or less covers almost all regions across Canada. For you Canadian real estate investing beginners in downtown Toronto or Vancouver screaming that it’s impossible, a 45 minute drive out of the city will get you properties like this. A 25% down payment on this property would look like this: $250,000 Purchase Price $52,500 required for 25% Down Payment $1,055/month in carrying costs at 5.89% and a 40 year amortization $225/month for Property Taxes $55/month for Insurance $1,335/month are your carrying costs Can you rent out a $250,000 property in most parts of the country for $1,600/month or more? Yes, definitely. Easily even. So if you take the $1,600/month in rent and subtract the $1,335/month in carrying costs you’re left with $265/month in cash flow, right? Well that’s how most Canadian real estate investing beginners look at things. But it’s not uncommon to have at least one or two $300 expenses of some sort on the property throughout the year. A pipe leaks, an electrical outlet stop working, a shingle goes flying off the roof, the furnace needs service…you get the idea. When these hit on any given month is your property still a positive cash flow property? Hmm…yes or no? Well most Canadian real estate investing beginners use a very short window of analysis. Typically, they look at a single month at a time and then when they get hit with that $300 repair they’ll scream something like this: “My property isn’t a positive cash flow property any more, the sky is falling!” But they are focusing on too small of a window. If they look at the entire year they’ll see that even with a couple of expenses the property is still producing positive cash flow. And here’s where things differ between beginner real estate investors and experienced ones. Experienced investors will look at the whole picture. A 12 month period, at least. They want their money to be working as hard a possible for them. So they take into account things like tax deductions, depreciation and appreciation before making any decisions on whether a property is a good investment or not. So even if the entire positive cash flow every month is eaten up they won’t consider the property a loser. The cash flow may be zero but the ‘tax flow’ may work to their advantage.” If you need help with determining cash flow on your next investment property, I’d be glad to help. Sincerely, Michael Ponte, President & Founder Prosperity Real Estate Investments Phone: 604-882-6901 PS Speaking of Cash Flow, the Wealthy Investors Network has a monthly Meetup where they play the “Cash Flow Game”. Knowing your overall cash flow is an essential part of getting ahead! You can check us out on Meetup by clicking here. Tweet Share <g:plusone size="small" href="http://www.prosperityinvestments.ca/?p=458" count="true"></g:plusone> Pin It <su:badge layout="1"></su:badge>
Go West for the Strongest Growth in Canada
Here is a very informative report we found that we wanted to share with you today on the Provincial economy forecast for June 2012. Here are some tidbits from the post: "Western Canada will dominate growth in this country this year and next. All provinces east of Manitoba will show weaker performance ...
Here is a very informative report we found that we wanted to share with you today on the Provincial economy forecast for June 2012. Here are some tidbits from the post: “Western Canada will dominate growth in this country this year and next. All provinces east of Manitoba will show weaker performance than the national average.“ “While global uncertainty has gone up a few notches recently and has somewhat dampened enthusiasm for commodities in recent weeks, we maintain our view that sustained global growth will support demand for, and thus the prices of, commodities at levels that will keep the commodities boom alive in Canada.” “we now project Alberta to lead growth in Canada for the second consecutive year in 2012, just slightly ahead of Saskatchewan“ “British Columbia is set to match the national economy’s growth rate in 2012, after outperforming it slightly last year.“ For the entire report, please click this link. After reading this report for ourselves we are even more enthusiastic about the fact that our main investing activities happen in Alberta. Sincerely, Michael Ponte, President & Founder Prosperity Real Estate Investments Phone: 604-882-6901 PS If you would like our newsletters please feel free to sign up here: <!-- #af-form-1083266096 .af-body .af-textWrap{width:98%;display:block;float:none;} #af-form-1083266096 .af-body .privacyPolicy{color:#000000;font-size:11px;font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;} #af-form-1083266096 .af-body a{color:#094C80;text-decoration:underline;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;} #af-form-1083266096 .af-body input.text, #af-form-1083266096 .af-body textarea{background-color:#FFFFFF;border-color:#919191;border-width:1px;border-style:solid;color:#000000;text-decoration:none;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:12px;font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;} #af-form-1083266096 .af-body input.text:focus, #af-form-1083266096 .af-body textarea:focus{background-color:#FFFAD6;border-color:#030303;border-width:1px;border-style:solid;} #af-form-1083266096 .af-body 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Are you tired of the roller coaster ride that your investments are on? Frustrated with poor returns on your RRSP/TFSA/Mutual Funds but don't know what else to do? Has the recent economic downturn delayed your retirement and are now wondering what to do next? Have you considered Real Estate Investing but don't know ...
Are you tired of the roller coaster ride that your investments are on? Frustrated with poor returns on your RRSP/TFSA/Mutual Funds but don’t know what else to do? Has the recent economic downturn delayed your retirement and are now wondering what to do next? Have you considered Real Estate Investing but don’t know where to get started? If you’ve answered “YES” to any of the above, then don’t miss Prosperity Real Estate Investments upcoming FREE seminar. “Prosper for Life.” People clinging to the relics of the past such as job security, savings, and a retirement plan may be the most devastated by the financial storms now engulfing the world. As the stock market continues to struggle with very little sight of recovery, the real estate market conditions represent a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for smart investors to acquire great properties inexpensively. Many fortunes will be made in the next five years by investors with the courage to take advantage of the tremendous values of today. We aren’t talking about properties in the United States where foreclosures are still sweeping the country but in a safe market right in our own back yard….Canada. Prosperity Real Estate Investments is an award winning investments company that’s been successfully investing in the Canadian real estate market for over 10 years providing investors great returns even during the recession down turn. If you want to learn Prosperity’s secret and how you could also get your investments back on track, make sure attend their upcoming seminar. Learn the fastest and most popular way most millionaires have created their wealth and how you could to. In this 60 minute seminar, you will learn: That your retirement plan may not be as sound as you think * How to make money in any economy. Up or down – doesn’t matter. * Finding great properties that provide you cash flow in your pocket every month. * Being a property owner without the hassles of being a landlord and managing tenants. * How to make better RRSP returns in Real Estate than your current investment strategy. * And much, much more………. The Prosperity Real Estate Investment seminar is sure to fill up fast so take a moment to pre-register today and ensure your seat is secured. Tuesday May 29th, 2012 6:30pm Holiday Inn Express 15808 104 Ave Surrey, BC You must register to attend our upcoming class and secure your seat. Seating is limited so don’t wait, register today. To register please e-mail info@prosperityinvestments.ca or call 604-882-6901. Sincerely, Michael Ponte, President & Founder Prosperity Real Estate Investments Phone: 604-882-6901 Tweet Share <g:plusone size="small" href="http://www.prosperityinvestments.ca/?p=418" count="true"></g:plusone> Pin It <su:badge layout="1"></su:badge>
I read an inspiring blog post this week that really made me stop and think about not only how far I've been fortunate enough to have come, but also the fate of some others you may have heard of. Others who have had a dream and decided that they ...
I read an inspiring blog post this week that really made me stop and think about not only how far I’ve been fortunate enough to have come, but also the fate of some others you may have heard of. Others who have had a dream and decided that they were never ever giving up, no matter what. For example,we’ve all heard of those books “Chicken Soup for the Soul” right? Did you know that the authors, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, brought their book to publisher after publisher, and received 134 rejections? Obviously it was picked up, and has since become one of the most published and sought after book series in history! Or, how about Walt Disney who “as a young man, Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star Newspaper because his boss thought he lacked creativity.” I think we all know how that one ended! One more example: Michael Jordan — “Most people wouldn’t believe that a man often lauded as the best basketball player of all time was actually cut from his high school basketball team. Luckily, Jordan didn’t let this setback stop him from playing the game and he has stated, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Investing in Real Estate is no different. You can fail, but only if you quit! We began back in 2004 after experiencing that investing in real estate was more lucrative than mutual funds and equities. “… it became clear that if I just continued doing the same thing that I was doing I was still going to be stuck in the position I had been in, which is lack of time and the chance to spend time with my family“. — Michael Ponte Since then we have built a life around investing and building success for others as well as ourselves! It is the most rewarding of careers! If you would like to STOP having that fear of failure and Go For It with a proven system, come check out our next seminar “Prosper for Life” on Wednesday, May 29th. You can see the full details here. You must register to attend this FREE event, and you can do so by emailing info@prosperityinvestments.ca or calling our office at 604-882-6901. Michael Ponte, President & Founder Prosperity Real Estate Investments Phone: 604-882-6901 Tweet Share <g:plusone size="small" href="http://www.prosperityinvestments.ca/?p=391" count="true"></g:plusone> Pin It <su:badge layout="1"></su:badge>
Why an Inspector for Your New Investment is Necessary
You've finally got a property you're serious about investing your money and your time in! You're ready to take that dive into the deep end. Is that home or housing unit exactly what it appears to be? It's impossible to really tell until you get an Inspector in there to ...
You’ve finally got a property you’re serious about investing your money and your time in! You’re ready to take that dive into the deep end. Is that home or housing unit exactly what it appears to be? It’s impossible to really tell until you get an Inspector in there to really INSPECT and do what he or she does best. There are serious issues such as mould or even asbestos to consider. A property with either of these issues needs to be cleaned up BEFORE any kind of further transaction will ever take place. Canadian Real Estate Magazine says “Gone are the days when mould was simply the “nasty black stuff’ growing on a wall that was cleaned up with some bleach. Today we are more aware of indoor air quality and that exposure to mould can cause a wide variety of illnesses. Mould can cause symptoms such as allergenic reactions or asthma attacks, progressing to severe and chronic ailments with prolonged exposure.” They go on to say “What do you do if you see or suspect you have mould? It is recommended you get a qualified mould inspector to do a proper assessment. Many property managers have unwittingly made their building’s mould situation worst by attempting to remedy the problem themselves.” And what about asbestos? “Equally as concerning as mould, and needs to be considered in older buildings. Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that was commonly used in Canada until the 1980’s for acoustic and thermal insulation, and fire proofing. Many older industrial, commercial and residential buildings still have asbestos-containing materials, which can include: ceiling tiles, plaster, texture coat (stucco), drywall compound, vinyl floor tiles and sheeting, pipe insulation, and some loose-fill vermiculite insulation. Asbestos is made up of microscopic bundles of fibres that can become airborne when the asbestos-containing materials are damaged or disturbed. When these fibres get into the air they may be inhaled into the lungs, where they can cause significant health problems. Prolonged exposure to high levels of asbestos fibres has been link to diseases such as lung cancer, mesothelioma or asbestosis.” (Source: Canadian Real Estate Magazine) Real estate investing can be incredibly profitable, IF you take care of the potential problems right from the beginning. Seek out a reputable Home Inspector to ENSURE your investment gives you the returns you deserve! Sincerely, Michael Ponte, President & Founder Prosperity Real Estate Investments Phone: 604-882-6901 Tweet Share <g:plusone size="small" href="http://www.prosperityinvestments.ca/?p=371" count="true"></g:plusone> Pin It <su:badge layout="1"></su:badge>
Not Sure Where to Start? Real Estate Investing Definitions!
Just for you, we found this GREAT list of definitions and terms that are commonly used in our world of Real Estate investing! You can see the entire list by clicking here but we wanted to give you a preview: Of course, WE'RE not "dummies" when it comes to this stuff, ...
Just for you, we found this GREAT list of definitions and terms that are commonly used in our world of Real Estate investing! You can see the entire list by clicking here but we wanted to give you a preview: Of course, WE’RE not “dummies” when it comes to this stuff, so if this list brings about questions for you, why not just give us a call! We’d be happy to help you get started in investing in real estate! Sincerely, Michael Ponte, President & Founder Prosperity Real Estate Investments Phone: 604-882-6901 Tweet Share <g:plusone size="small" href="http://www.prosperityinvestments.ca/?p=360" count="true"></g:plusone> Pin It <su:badge layout="1"></su:badge>