If you’re considering whether or not to buy properties in a particular town or region, chances are you have already investigated the local fire department and police force to be sure that they can protect your properties and your tenants from fire and crime. You should investigate hospitals too. Not many real estate investors bother [...]
Perhaps you have your eye on a smaller apartment building that you would like to buy. And then an idea comes to you. Why not buy it and convert it from a rental property to a condominium? It’s an appealing. In some cases, you can earn large profits very quickly. However, you need to be [...]
Asbestos is a natural mineral. For many years, it was routinely added to bonding materials to create an easily applied paste that could be used for insulation or fire resistance. You are most likely to find it covering the pipes located near steam boilers or hot water furnaces in older buildings. It is now known [...]
A few months ago, I met a woman who had just moved from her single-family suburban home into an apartment complex. When I asked her why, she told me that back in 2006, she was injured in a serious automobile accident. For the next five years, she was unable to work. Even though she owned [...]
If you are planning to invest in a particular country, city or town, investigate whether other developers have plans for the area too. You should be asking questions like these . . . Are there large undeveloped tracts of land in the area that could interest developers later on? Is a big homebuilder planning to [...]
One of the best ways to get a start in real estate investing is to invest in a small two-family or three-family home and occupy one of the units. “I live rent-free,” says one such investor, “and in a few years, I will move into the kind of single-family home I want and rent out [...]
What is the best business structure for a real estate investment company? We’ll be exploring that question in a series of future posts. Today, we’ll investigate one kind of structure . . . a sole proprietorship. Sole proprietorships are the most basic, and least complicated, business structure. When you are a sole proprietor, you are simply doing [...]
How serous a problem is mold? Mold has been tied to asthma, skin problems, and allergic reactions. That’s why mold is something you really don’t want in your buildings – whether you are renting them, renovating them, or living in them. Here are some ways to reduce the chances that a building you are considering [...]
You’ve spent months getting an apartment or house ready to rent. Today you’re showing it to potential tenants. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could start to generate some positive investment income, starting today? It would be nice, of course. Yet accepting security deposits from potential tenants is usually not a good idea. Granted, some [...]
How can you pick the best insurance company to offer coverage for your investment properties? Like all people who are shopping for insurance, you are going to shop around and compare both costs and coverage. But because you’re a real estate investor, you have some special needs to consider. Be sure to take these steps [...]