Real Estate Business – Can Investing in Real Estate Be Rewarding?

Real estate offers a lot of investment opportunities. Basically, a large amount of money may be needed to get into a real estate business. Building your cash savings and reserves is a must. You are unlikely to risk your entire life savings if you make an investment in this field, however you should educate yourself. The return increases in time and do not diminish if you invest wisely.

Investing in property is one of the most complicated business activities but can be so rewarding in the long run. The fact is, this is a well known investment vehicle specifically for the middle and upper class. Most who have tried doing investment in real-estate have found investing in property very rewarding even if renovating a house or running a rental property can take a lot of work.

Real estate investment is something that you should think about carefully. Do not just get yourself into it unless you know that you can effectively handle it. Investing in property, whether for selling or rental purposes, is something that you can learn. However, learning how to make an investment is not a simple and easy procedure if you are just trying to ‘wing it’ by yourself.

You should be aware that if you are new, there are a lot of surprises that come along with setting up a real estate business, especially when it comes to purchasing a property. Initially, you have to determine what kind of property investment you wish to make prior to even searching for a house. Among the most common investment property sources that you may consider include foreclosure sales, real estate agents, private sales and multiple listing services.

Once you have found a possible investment property, you should assess and verify its condition as a whole. Speak with the property seller regarding the sale terms and price of the property. If an agreement has been reached between you and the seller, you can then ask for a sale contract. Bear in mind to never close a deal until both you and the buyer or renter are happy with the terms so that problems don’t come up later on.

There are different ways to earn money from the property you invested in. You may have it rented or appreciate its value by building equity over time. Rental properties are investments that can appreciate in value and the property can give you a great increase in earnings after a few years if done wisely. While real-estate can create long term income, as an investor, you should seek advice from an experienced partner who is capable of developing and delivering a successful strategy from experience. I’ve prepared some powerful investing information for you below, enjoy!

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House Insurance Comparison – Vital Information About House Insurance Shopping

Finding the best insurance for your beautiful home has never been easy. It can be stressful, disturbing and laborious when you think about the time you end up spending in locating your special house insurance comparison deal. However, it is a worthy course you can’t just overlook especially when you value the investment you had put in the home. An insurance that meets all home security fears and does not charge high rates is the best for you to trust it with all your house investments.

Lenders take in house insurance comparison

In the world of home insurance comparison, no serious money lender will take a risk to give out money to those people whose houses are not insured with the best insurance firms. For this reason, you need to ensure your comparison plans are placed high above everything so that your resource for an insurance company that covers all your housing needs like effects from fires and natural calamities such as heavy rains and tough hitting winds. It is because of this that your comparison must be taken with a lot of seriousness.

House insurance comparison rates

So many insurance companies exist and will all give you promising deals that will leave you undecided on which one of them is really the best, especially when you are not keen on your house insurance comparison shopping. An insurance company with a soft policy for your home is the most desirable for you and house investment deals. Not all insurance companies charge same rates; they differ greatly with costs increasing on each falling year.

Before you start to research for your house insurance quotes, there are several benchmarks you need to value first. Do you want a landlord insurance cover, owner insurance, or are you planning to insure a house to live in or for rental purposes? It is important to note that rental houses have higher risks when tenants come in as the destruction caused by them is greater than when you live in yourself.

Internet for insurance comparison

With the emergence of the internet, house insurance comparison has become very easy and less time consuming. It is now all smiles because home insurance quotes are not hard to find, the type of policy not withstanding. As a matter of fact, premiums can be heightened by some factors, which make insurance comparison a vital thing to do. The important reason for comparison is to help you get a house insurance cover you can afford and feel safe and secured.

The location of the house you intend to insure can play a crucial role in your house insurance comparison job. Areas near water bodies are viewed as riskiest due to the high chances of floods. Therefore, the premium will be relatively high, which calls for a thorough comparison exercise that will assure your property safety. The age of the house is also a factor in comparison. Much older homes are cheap hence their premium is lower in comparison to current ones.

Before you pick on a company, ensure it is licensed so that you lock out many legal problems resulting from poor comparison you make. One important thing; will the company pay for the damage when you make a claim? It is good to ensure your house comparison is done perfectly right.

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A Guide to Equity Investment and Equity Finance

How does it Work?
Equity investment is a good way of getting involved into the business decision making process. As an owner, the equity investor has certain control over both operational and strategic issues concerning the business.

An equity investor’s unique interest in and aspiration for certain business sectors and industries influence his or her equity investment decisions as to select what businesses.

The perceived synergy and chemistry between the management of the business/existing owner(s) and the equity investor(s) are important to the success of the joint venture.

Different Types of Equity Investment
Venture capital investment. Venture capitalists invest in businesses at early stages when success or failure of a business is everything but certain. Venture capital investment carries higher risks but also potentially bigger rewards.
Private equity investment. Private equity firms invest in publicly listed companies and then take them private. Away from the public eye, Private equity firms seek to do what they do best, that is, improving management and business efficiencies to make a company more profitable.

Leveraged buyout. This is a rare way to become an equity investor without really investing much of your own equity capital. When a company’s existing owners wish for a way out but can’t find an investor with cash to buy the business, they locate someone called financial sponsor instead, normally a private equity firm but without committing itself to investing its own capital. Next, a business loan called LBO loan is arranged with the owners’ company as the borrower and the cash raised buys out the existing owners, leaving the financial sponsor to be the care taker of the company. The new debt has recourse only on the company, not on the private equity firm. The bootstrap transaction makes the equity firm, the financial sponsor, now the sole “owner” of the company.

Is an equity investment right for you, the investor?
Equity investment is having a business partner. Do you have enough business passions and are ready to get deeply involved in business operations. Or you are better off by lending money and then staying on the side line?

Do you have good inter-personal communication skills to interact well with management of the business.

Are you prepared to risk losing your investment capital if the business fails?

Advantage

As an equity investor, you stand to gain big if the business you invested in prospers.

You learn first-hand knowledge about running a business.

Disadvantage

Potential conflicts with management and existing owners over business decisions.

Your investment capital is potentially a risk capital.

Finding a business

There are many start-ups that may be in need of capital support, as well as some companies in later stages.

If you’re a serious a private equity investor, consider taking an underperforming public company private and turn it around.

You can always invest through the stock market. By accumulating enough shares publicly, try to be a good corporate raider, getting on the company’s board and influencing management for better business.

What do businesses look for?

Show business owners that you as an investor have the same business passions as they do.

Assure both management and owners that you’ll contribute in a good way and leave them enough autonomy.

Convince the business that accepting an equity investment is better than looking for a debt financing, given that they may be short on cash flows from operations at this point of their business.

And finally let them know that you’re a savvy investor and have invested in many businesses successfully.

Checklist

Check against alternative debt investment.

Is the business selected the right kind for you as an investor?

Be ready to have ongoing presentation with management.

Hire a business or management consultant as your advisor to assist you in this business investment venture.

FAQ
Where can I find businesses?

Get in touch with business community, especially through various trade organizations. Attend events sponsored by your local Business Link and chamber of commerce, also other investor conferences where businesses are invited to make their capital-raising pitches to investors.

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4 Online Business Trends to Watch Out For in 2015

Not sure what should be on your priority list for your business in 2015? Here are a few trends I think will be useful for your business, and for when preparing your next corporate video brief.

Brands are humanizing

More and more businesses are responding to what customers want – a personal, caring, and relatable experience. With so many new methods of engaging with customers such as corporate video production and social media marketing, it is now easier than ever before for businesses to build relationships with customers. By using this to their advantage, many businesses have helped increase sales by inspiring more confidence in their customer base. Branding has evolved beyond informing your target audience; it is now much more about engagement and inspiring.

The future is video

Video has been a big thing in the consumer world for some time now, however, many businesses simply are not aware of the huge value for money which video marketing provides. With Cisco reporting a 54% increase in corporate video usage in 2014 from 2013, 2015 is set to increase by 56% further still from 2014. Websites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter now make it easier than ever to reach a huge audience in seconds at very little cost. This endless flexibility and power which corporate video provides is just one of the many reasons your business simply can’t afford to miss out. If you haven’t considered a video for your business before, then now is the time to start researching!

Mobile friendly websites

With recent and regular ongoing changes to search engine algorithms and a huge increase in mobile device share, it is more important than ever to make sure your company website is mobile device friendly, or ‘responsive’. With Google now beginning to favour sites which are ‘mobile friendly’ by placing a ‘mobile-friendly label alongside search results when browsing from a mobile device, you can now get higher up the search rankings as well as making your website more accessible to mobile browsing customers.

Improved social media integration

Social media is no new thing to business, with many businesses strongly using the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to their advantage already. Many businesses, however, are now looking to improve social media integration with their marketing campaigns. Adding social sharing buttons across your published content can dramatically increase its potential reach furthermore, and research cited by the CMO council states that social sharing links in emails increases email click through rate by 150%.

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