Is buy-to-let still a sound investment?
With little movement of interest rates and continuing drops in house prices will buy-to-let now be an investment vehicle of the past? With buy-to-let lenders tightening up their lending criteria, house prices continuing to fall and the general lack of confidence caused by the Northern Rock crisis I believe that experienced investors will still continue to buy rental stock, banking on long term capital gains. However first time landlords or landlords with smaller portfolios are finding it harder to fund new rental stock. For the well placed landlord that has the correct gearing on their portfolio it is still a time to hunt for the next opportunity! There will always be risks involved in any business or investment. For example your investment can rise or fall in value and property is clearly no different. You therefore just need to ensure that you minimise potential risks. In the past I’ve used several methods to minimise risk to my own investment portfolio. These include: Ensure the mortgage is between 80% - 85% of the property’s value. Every time your mortgage is due for renewal try to release equity. This ensures that your rent covers your operating payments and expenses. Start building a fund by putting this money to one side. Therefore if you have sudden repair bills or a vacant property you have money to fall back on. Always keep your property well maintained. If the rental market in your area suddenly changes pace the up together properties will rent much quicker. Always ensure you have a tenancy agreement in place, as this will protect you any your property. Widen the range of tenants you agree to let your property to. You may find that council tenants are able to top up rent monies by their own means, giving you the rent you have always achieved. Areas which attracts students also attracts higher rents. Wear and tear may be slightly higher, but at least the monthly repayments are being met. When increasing your portfolio look for properties that can add to the overall yield of your whole portfolio, ensuring your investments stay balanced. For example try to buy property in disrepair. Once renovated your equity should have increased, which in turn would increase your property portfolio’s yield. More recently overseas property investment has become a trend with investors searching for the next property hotspot to invest in. Things to consider when looking for your next investment whether here or abroad include: How easy is it to get to the property? Can you keep an eye on the property if it remains empty for a period of time? Will the property be let for the whole year or is the property’s location Summer or Winter orientated? Can you easily maintain the property yourself saving you the cost of employing trades people or does the rental income provide enough cash to pay for unforeseen repairs? Will the property’s location ever fall out of fashion with your intended tenants? Remember holiday hotspots change very quickly! Always ensure your investment has a steady stream of visitors. Even if the U.K buy-to-let is not as buoyant as it has been over the past decade the vehicle for investment is still sound. Ensure you put time into researching your potential investment and prepare yourself for long term capital gains. The online-lettings portal will soon allow for holiday lettings to be uploaded ensuring where ever you or your property is located tenants can always be found.Benjamin Perry CEO of online-lettings.co.uk The Specialist lettings website where you can <a href="http://www.online-lettings.co.uk">rent flats</a> or buy a <a href="http://www.online-lettings.co.uk">Tenancy Agreement</a>
Source: www.ArticlePros.com

The Top 5 Reasons to Use Real Estate Flyer Templates
In difficult real estate markets (such as today’s market), it’s crucial for agents to lean out their marketing costs, yet at the same time, improve their brand identity and become efficient and well-known as an agent. One of the best ways to do this is by utilizing real estate flyer templates when creating marketing for their property listings. Real estate flyer templates are pre-designed marketing flyers, which agents open in an editing program like Microsoft Publisher or Adobe Photoshop, insert their property’s photos and description, then save and print for use in open houses and for various marketing efforts. Here are the top five advantages to using real estate flyer and brochure templates: 1. Unlimited Use — A successful top producing agent is constantly looking to promote their “just listed” or “just sold” listings.  What better way to create marketing material then to have your own flyer template? As soon as you list a property, just load up the template, drop in the photos and description text, and you’re set. Then, after you sell the property, simply load up the “just listed” template, change it to “just sold,” and change the price to the sale price. Now you have an excellent marketing flyer that you can distribute to your farm area to gain credibility and show off your latest sale. 2. Consistent Brand Image — A key characteristic of a top producing agent is familiarity.  All of the top agent’s marketing material has a consistent design theme, a certain “look” that differentiates them from other agents in the area. Agents that use plain flyers don’t create that signature brand image that the well known agents have. Consistently using a specific high-quality flyer template that is unique can help prospects in your area associate that look with you and allow you to cultivate a strong and recognizable brand image. 3.  Lower Marketing Cost — Many agents invest large amounts of money each month for marketing services and programs only to end up not using them because they are just too complicated or time consuming. Other agents end up hiring designers or marketing assistants to help them organize and implement their marketing campaigns, which is also very costly. Using flyer templates, agents pay a one time upfront fee for the templates (often less than the price of one hour or work by a designer) and are able to use that template for the rest of their real estate career without incurring anymore design fees. 4.  Easy Printing — Printing can be a major source of headaches for an agent, especially if they are trying to do it all themselves. Worrying about bleed lines, file formats, and document sizes is not an agent’s specialty. The good thing about professionally created real estate templates is that the printing specifications are built into the template and are, therefore, already taken care of. Simply update the template with new photos and text each time you use it, and send it off to your print shop (or your own printer). By using the same template each time you print, you can get any print discrepancies taken care of the first time you use that template, then just save it and re-use it over and over again. This helps you maintain consistent print settings which allows for easy and hassle free printing. 5. Fast Speed of Implementation — Another key characteristic of a top producer is speed. Agents that consistently get new listing are fast with everything they do. Many times these top producers have a team that they delegate marketing and administrative work to, which allows them to get more things done quicker. If you don’t have your own team to help you, you can still match these top producers in speed by creating your own efficient marketing system using pre-made flyer templates. Once you get a new listing, take the photos and load them into your brochure template, and get them printed. Having a routine down can allow you to focus your efforts where it matters most and using professionally designed real estate flyer templates is a key component in becoming a successful and efficient top producing agent. To download a professional real estate flyer template package, visit TurnKeyFlyers.comReuben Fine is the creator of TurnkeyFlyers.com, an online resource that helps real estate agents with their marketing by providing downloadable real estate flyer templates, easy-to-understand video tutorials, and useful sales and marketing articles.
Source: www.ArticlePros.com