Real Estate Investments in Rental Properties

All the investment advice columns these days recommend going back to tradition in investing - you know, putting your money into gold, real estate investments and such. They've even been giving advice to people to put their retirement funds in property speculation. While all this may be sound advice, people just stumble in finding the right real estate parcel. The first thing to ask yourself when you plan on real estate investments is what period of involvement you're looking for with the property you buy. Owning bricks and mortar comes with its own costs: property taxes, repairs and maintenance.

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The longer you own it, the longer you'll have to keep up with its healthy appetite for maintenance. Let's say that you hold on to a house for 15 years. Sooner or later, the pipes are going to begin to rot and need replacing, and the roof will need some work too. The foundation could run some cracks, and then there could be the expenses involved in shoring it up. Shorter-term real estate investments are better this way; if you make a good purchase, nothing major should turn up in maintenance, and you could stand to make a good profit if your area received attention from the town council for civic amenities.

But then again, short-term ownership, while it can be less costly, can also be less profitable if you are hoping to collect on rentals or even value appreciation. The housing market's been quite unpredictable recently; rentals were overpriced at one point, and then they fell and then recovered again. If you happen to snag a property when the rental market is in oversupply, you could be looking at a good long wait before your rentals look up again. If you're in the game for the long run, these things happen to even out. But in the short run, there are risks. The more important thing is, how do you find the right building or property to park your real estate investments in?

Naturally you want to present your home in the best possible light. Keep the windows sparkling clean and remove any clutter in the rooms. Small repairs like filling cracks in the foundation, driveway repair, fixing broken tile and generally sprucing up the wear and tear spots around your home go a long way. Minor repairs are good to do.

Major repairs are not usually cost effective since the odds of getting back more than you put into them diminish if you have to pay someone else to do the job. Remodeling a bathroom or a kitchen can be quite expensive if left to professional contractors. There is no guarantee you'll get your money back or that you'll make a profit. If you want to get into that business, buy a home that you feel is under priced and needs a face lift and go at it. That is a business in itself.

There are lots of sneaky ways to go about finding the right real estate. Some people have 'a guy' they know in the banks, who runs the department in property loans. When something is going up for foreclosure and sale, you'll be the first to know. You could run a wanted ad on Craigslist, or as a last resort, you could enlist the help of a real estate agent. One of the best ways getting started with real estate investments would be to sign up for membership at a property owners association. The website of the National Real Estate Investors Association has information on all the local groups in your area.

Of course, buying property is hell on earth, in satisfying the banks or anyone else who'll be financing you. You should only venture into this if your credit is good. And getting financing for real estate investments is harder if you won't be living there. The banks figure that if it's not your own personal home to live in, you could get careless with your payments. They ask for bigger down payments, bigger monthly payments and so on. But if they see that you have a good backup reserve of cash to attend to any problems in the building, leaks, unforeseen repairs, and so on, that will convince them that you really are in it for the long haul (well, as long as you want to make it).

Since we are dealing with what is usually a families largest individual asset, getting an independent real estate appraisal which generally ranges from about $125 - $300 dollars is suggested. That way you are not only relying on the multiple listing search resources which doesn't take into account the differences in time value of previous sold listings as well as other valuation considerations. This way your have a realistic picture of what your property is worth in the open market at the time the appraisal is made.

Online MLS market analysis appraisals also be used to ball park your home's selling price. Although they make use of the multiple listings, there is not the visual inspection you would receive with a bona fide physical appraisal.

People who invest, always have their eye on the time they will sell their property; they think that that is when they will make a killing. Well, it is so easy to be all caught up in how property prices rise, that you could somewhat neglect what chances you have of bringing the price down when you buy it. Property in expensive neighborhoods in large cities, often sells for far more than what you could get out of it in rent. That's because the sellers are pricing them to sell to people who will pay for love of the house, not for an income they wish to see from it. If you can't really tell the difference between the two, you're in big trouble.

But if you are a small personal investor involved in real estate investments because you dream of owning and running your own property, you might still come away clean if the property appreciates in value. That can't be such a bad deal.