Make Good returns with Real Estate Investments

Real Estate is one of the most lucrative investment options available on the market today. I personally believe in this investment option as I am involved in commercial real estate investment. Real estate offers the highest return on investment over any other type of investment available. This investment option allows the largest accumulation of wealth during a relatively short period of time.

For example, if you invest in real estate, you automatically receive a number of tax reducing privileges that do not happen for other types of investment. Since taxes amount for at least 30% of your annual expenditures, saving on taxes can make your investment much more solid and lucrative.

Before you can think about venturing into this type of investment, you need to learn as much as you can before you invest a single cent. Take classes and seminars on investment analysis, real-estate finance and commercial lease analysis.

The second step is to look for the right properties. Do your research to find what comparable properties are sold and rented for in the location you are considering. The right property attracts the right tenants or buyers, so spend time and effort up front on finding desirable properties. A good rule of thumb is to look for the worst house on the best block, since you can make many changes to a property but you can never change its location.

Real estate investments are categorized into two main categories namely; residential and commercial real estate. Depending on your capital and personal preference, you can choose to invest in either residential or commercial real estate. I have listed different types of real estate investment options below by category:

Residential/housing

Family Homes - This is the simplest and most common type of real estate investment on the market. Families need houses to live in. The demand is very high, and also this the easiest investment to start with as little knowledge is required to venture into this category.

Condos/Estates - These are multi-family homes and the second common type of real estate investment. It is important to be careful with your assessments on the property and your numbers when calculating your likely return on investment.

Commercial

Commercial real estate is a bit sophisticated type of investment; this requires some knowledge about this market. However, you can still start with this type of investment with the help or guidance of a seasoned real estate investment consultant. Commercial real estate offers the highest return on investment if the numbers are played intelligently.

Investment in commercial real estate covers retail properties, office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, apartment complexes – and vacant land that has the potential for development for these types of buildings. In short, almost any kind of real estate except single-family home and single-family lots can be regarded as commercial real estate.

I will cover benefits of investing in either residential or commercial real estate in my next post.

Wishing you all the best in your quest to financial freedom.

How to tap into Internet Riches

Have you ever considered starting an internet business? The internet has produced hundreds of millionaires since the dot com boom. If you've never considered starting an internet business, I think you will be geared to start your own online business after reading a book by Scott Fox called Internet Riches. You can read the book review at one of my blogs here: Internet Riches.

After reading the review, you can buy this book here: Amazon books. Scott Fox shares internet success secrets in a simplified and easy to follow manner.

Scott Fox is a top e-business consultant in Hollywood. He is a frequent speaker on e-business and entrepreneurship at universities, including NYU, USC, and UCLA, and at conferences such as Digital Hollywood and Internet World.

Happy Reading!!!

Business Lessons I learnt from the Master of Real Estate

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is probably one of the most influential books ever written on entrepreneurship. One thing I liked about this book is the author's ability to clearly show readers how to evolve from being an ordinary thinker to being a master thinker. I have read this book more than ten times since I came across it. Every time I read it my mind is refreshed and energized.

If you study all wealthy people you know of, there are some stark similarities in their behavior which makes them a unique group of people. In my pursuit to become a successful entrepreneur, I study and follow a couple of wealthy entrepreneurs who are my role models. As a passionate real estate developer, I have been following the successful rise of Donald Trump founder of the Trump Organization. Donald’s story is a remarkable one. Here is a gentleman whose fortunes plummeted to zero when the real estate market experienced a downturn. He was publicly declared bankrupt in the 90s.

Despite this set back Donald did not sit back and mourn over his predicaments. He worked hard to resurrect from the depths of oblivion. By late 90s, Donald’s financial fortunes improved greatly due to his business acumen, focus and diligence.

The Trump Organization operates a property portfolio worth billions of dollars worldwide. Donald Trump's empire is synonymous with exquisite and signature properties across the US, Europe and Asia. Donald is a shrewd businessman and excellent negotiator, who has managed to seal very attractive deals. I have read many books authored by this gentleman. I am looking forward to reading his latest book ‘The America we deserve’.

Key business lessons I have learnt from Donald are:

Always define your business’s core values

Donald has mastered the art of defining the core values of his brand and leveraging his brand equity to appeal to a wide customer base. This has made his brand connect with his target customers.

Model a brand around your lifestyle

Donald has been so successful in large part because he has managed to build a lifestyle brand around the luxurious and successful life that he lives and most people aspire to. He works hard to cultivate the image, and he uses it to expand into new business lines and find new areas to venture into. From his real estate developments to his casinos and books, his new ventures are selected to dovetail with his core image.

Have a distinct line of business

The Trump name is synonymous with exquisite real estate developments. Donald Trump has done an excellent job promoting the idea that he owns properties around the world.

Form strategic partnerships

Most of the buildings bearing the Trump brand overseas are not wholly owned by Donald Trump. After going experiencing bankruptcy and the ups and downs of the real estate market, Donald learned to spread his risk by forming strategic alliances with other investors. He puts his name and his image to work while keeping his costs and exposure low. For example properties like Trump World, in Seoul, have licensed his name but aren't owned by him. He gets a fee for lending out his name, makes sure there's quality control and gets great marketing out of having another big Trump-branded property in the marketplace.

Persistence

The real estate market is a volatile market, which is very unpredictable. Donald showed great persistence in his pursuit to excellence. Having lost everything, he managed a dramatic comeback. Donald has credited his success to patience and persistence over long periods of time to wait out market fluctuations. Persistence is very important a virtue for success in every endeavor.

Negotiation

Donald Trump is regarded as one of the best negotiators alive. He is known for his shrewd negotiating skills which have seen him landing juicy deals in the corporate world. Donald advises businessmen to always do it face-to-face. In this era of telephones, teleconference, and video conference, Donald suggests that if it's an important negotiation, you should do it face-to-face, so that you can read the other person's body language.

Middle men

Donald is not a fan of middle men who do not add value and who extract outsized returns. In one of his books, Donald tells the story of how he "goes around" a broker on a billion dollar deal where he was losing a negotiation and flew to Dubai to deal directly with the principal and struck a great deal.

In most cases business lose a lot of money to these middlemen, who in most cases do not add value to the business. I agree with Donald in by-passing the middleman and going it alone.

So here you go, I hope you learnt one or two things from the ‘Don’s business style. If you have not read any of Donald trump’s books click here: Amazon books

To your Success!!

The Art of the start

As human beings, we all have dreams; we have ambitions, we aspire to be successful in all spheres of life. These are natural human feelings. However, most of our dreams and aspirations are unrealized as we do not act upon them. May be you have tried once to pursue your dream and experienced some form of setback and you gladly accepted failure as inevitable. This is not the way to go. Remember what the mind conceives, it will surely come to pass. Remove the word ‘impossible’ from your vocabulary, as nothing is impossible to achieve under the sun.

Mark Twain said 'The secret of getting ahead is getting started'. Procrastination is a thief of time. It is human nature to procrastinate, but it is a terrible thing to have a dream and not do anything about it. Many people have excellent ideas, but fail to take action. Theodore Roosevelt said 'It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.'

Many people are languishing in their current status because of fear to follow their dreams. It is human nature to be afraid of the unknown, especially when it affects your comfort zone. It takes great courage and effort to start any type of business. Great entrepreneurs and innovators recorded in the annals of history had great dreams and worked on their dreams to achieve success which is evident today. If they had not worked hard to realize these dreams and aspirations the world would have never seen any of these inventions and innovations.

There is story I always recite every time I talk about following and accomplishing our dreams. A close ally of mine from my days in high school Douglas, was a gifted artist, Douglas could draw anything imaginable. In school he scoped all available accolades for his drawing skills. After school he went on to enroll at an art school in Harare where he graduated with distinctions.

I recall talking to Douglas soon after he had won a scholarship to do his masters in the US. Then he was working as a part time lecturer at a college. He said to me, 'you know I have been thinking of establishing an art school for the past three years.....I interrupted and asked him why he had not started the college? Without mincing his words he said ' you see, this venture is BIG, I need so much money to start this school. Where on earth am I going to get the money I need as a start up? You know banks are very difficult to approach'. He went on and on, telling me how impossible it was for him to realize his dream.

I asked him another question, 'but Douglas, have you ever tried approaching a bank or individual people to come in as Joint Venture partners? He gave me an emphatic no, and justified why he had not thought about this route of funding. As Douglas narrated his story, every time he mentioned an obstacle his voice radiated in agreement. My friend had already succumbed to failure before he had even tried.

Douglas's problem is similar to millions of people who have brilliant ideas but have been sitting on their laurels without taking any action to actualize their dreams. Just imagine if Larry and Sergey of Google had not taken action to actualize their dream, what could have happened to Google?. The world would have been deprived of a search engine that has redefined and brought great innovation and empowerment to millions of people worldwide.

Take Action

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. You need to take action and start working on your dream. Start small and grow gradually. Remember you don't need money to start actualizing your dream. What you need is drive and passion to follow your dream. Don’t let fear and ill advice distract your thought process. Keep your eye on the ball. Michael Friedsam said ‘Concentrate on finding your goal, then concentrate on reaching it."

Fear is an enemy of progress

Fear is defined as being afraid of the unknown. If it’s raising capital that has been impeding on your success there are several ways to raise money apart from borrowing from a bank. Honestly I don't know why people waste their time approaching banks for funding when they know they don't have collateral to cede against their loan. As a start up banks are not the right place to look for capital. You can raise capital through your personal savings, contributions from friends, parents and Joint Venture partners.

Live and cherish your vision everyday

In order to remain focused, you need to visualize everyday what your venture would be like once it is set up. Every day you need to set aside time to reflect on the dream to keep it alive in your heart. When Sam Walton the founder of the biggest retail chain in the world, started Wal-Mart, he had a vision of building the biggest grocery chain in the United States. But when he started, he started with a small grocery store. Although he started small, he never at once lost sight on his goal of ' building the biggest grocery chain in America'. Today Wal-Mart is the biggest Supermarket chain in the world employing millions of people worldwide.

Proper planning and conscious effort can take you far in realization of your dreams. Dennis Green said, ‘The secret to success is to start from scratch and keep on scratching."