Starting a Real Estate Business

March 3, 2010 · Posted in Become a Landlord · Comments Off 

The real estate industry is very sensitive to economic changes like interest rates and the cost of materials in building houses. Interest rates in particular can easily swing the number of sales that are completed during any quarter of the year. Rising interest rates will slow down the sales and falling rates will aid the sales of real estate. This is an important fact in the real estate business as this can absolutely cause rapid changes in income from the sales that can be made.

With this in mind, the time to buy an agency that comes up for sale may be when the real estate business is in the doldrums. A hot real estate market will make an existing firm worth more, as their income will be higher during this period of time. Of course if you follow this course of action, you will have to wait out the slow down in the markets. Another factor in the purchase or start-up a real estate company is the state licensing requirements.

Most states have serious requirements for real estate agents and brokers. Brokers have a much stiffer requirement in most states than an agent. The requirements include passing exams and a fixed number of educational hours for both agents and brokers. There is also a requirement for continuing education. These state mandated steps to a career in the real estate business would have to be met before an agency could be purchased or started. Since this industry is regulated and has strong legal steps to comply with, this licensing plus experience would be an initial step to being an owner in this field. This is not a business that can be stepped into by just paying out some money.

An agent can have the goal of owning their own firm, but it will take planning and meeting the state rules to make this happen. Once a potential owner has these steps out of the way, finding an existing business to buy will be in order. A quick check of real estate business listings reveals that they are usually found in larger cities and the asking price is significant. There are also resales of franchise companies. Just typing into a search engine, “Real estate businesses for sale”, came up with this quick check. A buyer could also check with business brokers and real estate brokers in their city. Another source worth checking out would be a franchise connection. An in place real estate business is advantages as the name is already known and will get clients due to this. When you start a company from the ground up you do not have this advantage. An existing business with several locations will come with a higher price tag than what you could start your own business for.

Another way to gain ownership would be buying into an existing business. This could work if you have a solid relationship with the current owner. The problem is you will not have the final say in most decisions unless you are buying controlling interest.

Specialty real estate firms

Most people think about a firm that helps with the buying and selling a home. There are several other areas of specialization. A real estate firm could become expert in buying and selling commercial property, farmland and farms, farm product processing plants, rental properties and shopping centers. Actually a broker could cut out a niche market from many that are available in the real estate business. If you have an area of expertise, this could become something that could be marketable and cut out a lot of competition in certain situations. Some real estate firms have unique departments that handle certain types of real estate marketing. The decision you must make is what kind of a firm are you going to own. You may have to start your own in order to make it happen.

You could also get into real estate management and the buying and selling of these rental properties, which is a very unique part of the industry. Shopping center related firms could be in from the start of a project. They can help with the formation of the firm to build and own the property and then handle the rentals and day-to-day management of the center.

The point of all of this is there are areas of real estate specialization that lend themselves to a business that just works in this real estate category.

Finding the money to make your dream happen

You may not have the total purchase price for an existing business. The question is how do you come up with the balance to make the deal. Finding a source to lend you the money is one way to come up with the needed funds. There are businesses that offer loans to new owners of businesses. These can be found on the Internet by just doing a search. Family and friends could be another source of money. One way to get the needed money is to take in a partner for the business. If you have a friend in the business maybe they would be interested in owning part of the existing company. All of these possible money suppliers will have different requirements for paying the money back.

Make sure you can see your way clearly on how you will accomplish the pay back. This business can be adversely affected by interest rates so you would need a second way to make the payments. A person thinking about ownership in this field must remember that it can be feast or famine as far as sales and commissions go. This is not like being in the restaurant business or owning a printing company. Successful brokers can make considerable money in a good market. They can also have periods that are very tight as to sales. The brokers that succeed have a policy of putting away some of their earnings during good times to cover the less profitable times. Doing this just shows the broker has a realistic view of the business.

Conclusions

This business can be extremely profitable during low interest rate economies. The legal and state requirements make the ownership of a brokerage firm more difficult to own than is the case with other businesses. Buying and selling a real estate business is somewhat more difficult due to the restrictions that are placed on the owner of a real estate firm. You must have the appropriate licenses in place before you can begin operation. This is true whether you buy a company or start one up from scratch. Finding a firm you can afford will take some time and research on your part. Hiring a professional business broker may speed up the search.

Deciding early on if you want to be a specialist will set other decisions in place. Niche areas that you are an expert in will help cut the competition somewhat. A general real estate business will have the potential for more clients, but will need and ongoing advertising campaign to gain listings and clients looking to buy. The start-up is cheaper to open, but will have little cash flow like an existing firm. Money flow is the one huge advantage buying an existing business offers to the new owner.

Author: Bill Henthorn
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Real Estate Sector in India is to have $1.5 Billion Additional Investment in 2010-11

January 21, 2010 · Posted in Closing in your Investment Deal · Comments Off 

Real estate sector in India is expected have $1.5 billion additional investment in 2010-11. In fact, the property sector in India is a Rs.70,000-crore industry and the new reported investment is in addition to this amount. This expected additional investment is a three-fold increase over that of the corresponding period of 2008-09. This will pump in much life-blood to the industry which has had a slump and stagnation for about 15 months in the wake of the global economic meltdown. The main collaborators of the additional fund are reportedly RedFort Capital, Xander Real Estate Partners, ICICI Prudential Infrastructure Fund, Sun Apollo and HDFC India Real Estate Fund. Most of these investments are expected to be in the metro centres and Tier 2 cities.

Of the additional $1.5 billion additional investment in the real estate sector in India in 2010-11, domestic contributors will put in to the tune of $400 million. The remaining fund of $1.2 billion is to come from international investors. In the words of Amit Goenka, national director, Kinght Frank Indian (P) Ltd: “These estimates are based on the total active domestic and international funds and their existing corpus strengths. There are some active domestic players like HDFC, ICICI Prudential Fund, IndiaREIT, Milestone and ASK who are expected to do deals in 2010. The bulk of the funds are, however, foreign, with much larger corpuses.” Nagarjuna Constructions, Parsvanath, Godrej Properties and a few others have already struck deals with these fund investors.

In the context of real estate India ,This sector has $1.5 billion additional investment in 2010-11, real estate groups in India like Emaar, MGF, Purvankara, Omaxe, Ambience, etc. are reported to be planning to enter in to private equity (PE) deals for their residential property projects. Some other real estate majors have announced qualified institutional placements (QIP) and initial public offerings (IPO). Reportedly, a number of Tier 2 developers in the Delhi NCR, Bangalore and MMR regions are in negotiations regarding PE funds for their residential units at various locations in the country. Most of the projects are located in metro centres such as Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Bhubeneswar, Jaipur, Lucknow, Goa, Chandigarh, etc. In the words of Abhishek Kiran Gupta, research head of the property consultants of global repute, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM): “While abnormally large returns can be found in specific projects throughout the country, we have limited our analysis to India’s seven largest cities due to high residential demand from their large populations, relatively higher transparency levels and presence of premium regional and national developers. In order to round out our top 10 list, we have also included three additional noteworthy cities which we feel have the potential to provide significant returns to investors.”

Joseph Smith have 3+ years of experience in content writing of Property India,property in India,properties in india to buy,real estate India,commercial properties india, Real Estate Gurgaon .

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/real-estate-sector-in-india-is-to-have-15-billion-additional-investment-in-201011-1760563.html

Obama’s Loan Modification Plan – A Step In The Right Direction

October 2, 2009 · Posted in Closing in your Investment Deal · Comments Off 

Obama’s loan modification plan is aimed to ease the housing crisis with an estimated $ 75 Billion dollars dedicated to keep Americans in their current homes. The plan centers around the idea that it is better to keep American families in homes that they can afford through lowering their interest rates versus letting the entire neighborhood suffer through a foreclosure. His plan helps the banking industry as well. The lenders receive incentives after each year the borrower is able to make their payments. This strategy directly attacks the root of the real estate problem where many people did not prove their income and took what are called stated or “liar’s” loans.

By putting together a comprehensive plan with standards, the lenders and banks now have underwriting guidelines to approve modifications that will keep the homeowner in their current home. By placing the incentives after each successful year the borrower stays in the home the banks will now try harder to find a long term solution. The banks and lenders will also benefit with the government backing because the lowering of interest received does not effect their core capital. Being over leveraged and not having enough capital caused the credit crisis of 2008. This immediately sent the economy into the deepest recession since the great depression. Obama’s loan modification plan has the right set of goals to help keep families in their homes, long term solutions, industry standards, and capital preservation needed to be successful. Although the results probably won’t be fully known for years, the families that this will benefit will feel the results immediately.

To save your home,click here to get the help you need to qualify for a mortgage modification loan.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/obamas-loan-modification-plan-a-step-in-the-right-direction-1295804.html