By Roberto Garabell
Green is in. Being environmentally conscious is no longer just about a healthier lifestyle for you and your family, its about protecting the one earth we have for generations to come. And if you have not jumped upon this bandwagon yet, you are doing yourself and the rest of the world a disservice. So hop aboard the most intelligent and healthy trend since indoor plumbing and get green!
Green is no longer just about recycling plastics and aluminum, taking cloth bags to the grocery store and using green light bulbs and organic cleaning supplies. Its about a lifestyle and it includes the home you live in. Green homes describe the way a house was built and the energy it consumes. And although many homes may boast to be green friendly due to environmentally conscience builders and improved utilities and appliances, you can be certain the home you are looking at is officially green if it is a LEED-certified home or EarthCraft House.
There are a number of factors that go into creating a green home. If you are wondering if the house you are looking to buy is green, compare it to this checklist issued by the U.S. Green Building Council in their Green Home Guide:
Location is key. New green homes and neighborhoods must not be built on environmentally sensitive sites such as farmlands, wetlands and endangered species habitats.
Be sensitive to size. No matter how green friendly a house is constructed, a bigger house uses more materials to build and consumes more energy to heat, condition and light.
Check out the building design. Are windows and skylights placed to catch the most amount of sunlight so that less artificial lighting is required? Are shade units installed to keep down on air conditioning use and are windows placed for maximum exposure to breezes?
What building materials were used? Green homes are constructed or renovated with healthy, non-toxic building materials. And wood-based features should have come from rapidly renewable sources such as bamboo.
Energy-Star ratings should be on windows and doors and on all appliances, including heating, cooling, lighting and water-heating systems.
Jump on the environmentally conscious bandwagon today and do something good for yourself and the environment when you get green!
For more info on
Atlanta Real Estate, Green Homes Atlanta, or Modern Atlanta Homes please visit DwellAtlanta.Com. Visit Green Houses in Atlanta.
Turkey “the Only Logical Choice” for Expats According to Experts
By Rhiannon Davies
According to AXA, the global insurance specialists, the current state of the nation will see up to 500,000 Britons flee the UK in 2008, with a survey from HSBC revealing that Britain is now not even considered a good place to live by people from other countries.
So it seems that the UK is set to suffer considerably from the disastrous state of the economy, and from the government’s attempts to solve the significant financial problems that Great Britain is facing.
Added to these predictions and survey findings are the bare facts that one person is being declared bankrupt or insolvent in the UK every five minutes, over 100 properties are being repossessed in Britain each day, and average household debt has reached GBP 9,500 as the personal economic situation of Britons worsens.
Reacting directly to these worrying facts, Julian Walker, the Managing Director of Turkish property specialists Spot Blue, has spoken out about the choices that Britons realistically now have to face.
In a recent interview, Walker explained that in his opinion there is only one logical choice for British citizens who want to escape the winter of discontent that’s fast enveloping the entire nation:
“Britain’s economy is severely stretched and we have to accept that the fiscal landscape of our nation will never be the same again. It’s the real people who are being affected by the sorry state of the economy, and as every person in this country knows, we haven’t even begun to see the final repercussions of the crisis yet.
“As billions of pounds have been wiped off the stock markets and banks around the world teeter on the brink of bankruptcy, it’s the pensioners and soon-to-be-retirees who are going to be most radically affected in these very tough times.
“The value of pensions are being decimated, and as inflation has been edging upwards in Britain, the real cost of living for those in, or about to enter retirement is becoming worryingly ever more expensive.
“If people want to escape the UK meltdown and enjoy a comfortable and prosperous future, they increasingly realise that Britain is not the nation for them in retirement - and in our opinion at Spot Blue, Turkey is one of the few logical choices for those seeking the perfect balance of lifestyle and financial advantages.
“In Turkey, British retirees are made to feel welcome by the local people from the very first day of their new life abroad - and with HSBC offering over 18%pa on deposits, Britons will immediately see the value of living in Turkey in terms of the more positive state of their bank balance.
“With low property prices and the cost of day-to-day living in Turkey is a fraction of what it is in the UK - from council tax to heating bills, Turkey is significantly cheaper.
“The climate in Turkey’s southern coastal regions is also much warmer and sunnier than the British climate, which means that people spend far more time outdoors and engaged in outdoor activities, which is better in terms of health benefits.
“The shorter and warmer winters and longer spring and summers naturally reduce heating and fuel costs, and with all that additional sunshine, the local grown produce - the majority of which is organic - is healthier, tastier, more abundant and therefore very good value for money.
“We’re seeing greater interest among British retirees for property in Turkey, with those who contact us keen to benefit from our wealth of experience and local knowledge to help them find a house, make a home and start a brand new life in Turkey - well away from the British weather and the British economic turmoil.
“For the short to medium-term all Britons are aware that the United Kingdom will not be a comfortable, affordable, prosperous or positive place to be, and so we agree with AXA’s predictions and are confident in stating that ever greater numbers of Britons will chose expatriation over debt and poverty.
“In our opinion, Turkey is the number one choice for those who want to live a fantastic quality of affordable life in an accessible, stable and rapidly advancing nation.”
For more opinion about the Turkish property market and for details of the stunning second home and investment property opportunities that exist in Turkey, contact Spot Blue on 020 8339 6036 or visit www.spotblue.co.uk
How To Manage Risk In Real Estate Investments?
By Michael Shuster
Then they fear the risk comes from their lack of knowledge. There is no need to feel naive or claim ignorance. The bottom line is that unless you do this every day for a living you will always feel ‘out-of-the-loop’. Funny thing is - most people know what a stock is yet they have no idea what drives stock prices up or down. Yet, because the societal ‘norm‘ is to buy mutual funds because a fund manager must understand the stocks better than you - people go out and buy mutual funds. Then, even if the funds/stocks go down, the fund manager gets paid and people invest more because they are saving for retirement. I buy mutual funds too - but this year (2008) they have lost money and I can’t do a damn thing about it. In the worst real estate/mortgage crisis of our time, I’m making money in real estate investing. I’ll hold on to my funds, but managing risk is about diversification.
Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, and co-author of Why We Want You To Be Rich) with Donald Trump) said it this way - and he’s absolutely right - “the more control you have over something, the less risky it is. The less control you have over something, the more risk there is!” In my real estate investments I control virtually every factor - when I buy mutual funds I can’t tell the fund manager what stocks to buy and what to sell.
Suffice it to say that when you don’t eat-sleep-and-breath in a certain industry, there is no shame in partnering with an expert. You rely on an accountant for tax advice, a doctor for medical advice, and a lawyer for legal advice. You probably don’t know as much about their industry as they do because you don’t study it or don’t practice it every day. M&M Properties acts like the real estate doctor. We get paid to study the properties, the markets, the techniques, and the solutions (educate ourselves), and then we implement the solution (prescribe and administer the treatment) eg. property rehab and contract negotiations to name just a few, so as to make the property profitable.
Passive revenue is a buzz-word these days, and I believe in it for the right reasons. People continually talk about MLM (multi-level-marketing). Recently I suggested to somebody (who was trying to sell me on a MLM program where I get paid every time someone clicks on certain websites and web ads) that if you have to recruit each person into the program one-by-one, you could die of old age trying to build your network of people beneath you (the ones you get paid off of in MLM structures). The person went on to explain how the numbers work, and in fact could add up to be massive numbers further down the road. He told me “it’s the best way I know how” “I truly believe in it as the way of the future.”
Many people make money in many different ways in this world (including multi-level marketing). It’s all about what you believe in and what you focus on.
I’ll tell you this much:
1. Everybody needs a home - AND - the markets where I am buying/selling properties in actually enjoy significantly MORE demand than supply - thus no risk of vacancy or low rent.
2. The price can drop out of a stock overnight - and a company could go bankrupt - a housing market can go down but the house will never be worth zero.
3. The market is probably near the bottom - it has already bottomed out in the area I am buying/selling and is in fact already appreciating
Where the risk is eliminated:
1. Little to no risk of vacancy - carrying the cost of the property out of your own pocket.
2. No risk of property depreciating further
3. No risk of property falling apart b/c you just rehabbed it with all new materials - so cost of repairs is minimal
4. No risk of costing you more money b/c the rental income far exceeds the cost of the property.
But consider this for a moment. In very general and simplistic terms, if I buy a property with a little money down (of my own money), and after all expenses including electric, gas, repairs, vacancy, and mortgage, the profit each month (Cash-Flow) is $1,000.00, then I get my FULL investment back in a matter of months, and then my income (Cash-Flow/monthly income) increases by approx $800 - $1,000 per month from there ever-after until I sell the property. PLUS the value of the property keeps going up.
If you don’t have the cash to put down right now, I know of investors who are using their credit line for the down-payment. For the record, I don’t condone or advise in abusing credit to buy something that depreciates in value otherwise you get into debt and credit trouble. But as Robert Kiyoaski teaches, what I am referring to is good’ debt eg. that what you purchase with borrowed money (debt) increases in value AND covers the cost of carrying the debt. That my friends, is how and why THE RICH GET RICHER - they leverage money!
They also buy low and sell high. We’ve all heard it, yet now when the market is low, everybody is scared. I don’t blame them, but I flipped 3 properties last week to “RICH” people, because they (the rich people) want to buy low and sell high.
Think of it this way let’s assume you get your mail and you have your Verizon bill.
QUESTION: how many people do you have to spend time recruiting into an MLM or Pay-Per-Click program, and how many hours of labor does it take you to raise the money (via these said methods) just to pay that one mobile phone bill? Now compare that to having an extra $800 - $1000 per month coming in without doing any work, above and beyond setting up the initial deal? That’s the other way the rich get richer - they don’t trade time for money - they acquire investments that provide ‘passive’ revenue and appreciate in value 24 hours a day, regardless of where you are or what you are doing with your time.
To me, it’s about the amount of time you put in v.s. the amount of reward you get back. Last week I flipped 3 properties and I only spent a little bit of time on my computer to do the deals. I never used a penny of my own money.
To reduce risk, you must gain more control. To reduce risk further you must have options. In real estate investing you can reduce risk by purchasing properties below fair market value, or you buy properties that command rent that exceeds the carrying costs, or you can buy properties that are in a rapidly appreciating market. All of those scenarios reduce risk. When you acquire properties that meet all three criteria, you have almost reduced all of the risk. By having multiple advantages to the property, you also gain options regarding exit strategies. In other words, you reduce the risk of getting stuck with a losing proposition (property). If you have more than one option to get out of the property, that also reduces risk!
Michael Shuster is President of M&M Properties Inc. www.MandMproperties.biz
Offering Real Estate Investment Training, Joint Venture Deals, and Private Mentoring for real estate investors of all levels. you are looking to expand into other methods of investing in real estate, Get our FREE REPORTS that are sure to help every investor succeed:
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