Using Property Management Software in the Real Estate Industry

By Layla Vanderbilt

There is a lot of information you need to keep track of when you are a real estate agent. Many people are surprised by just how many details you need to know when you are trying to help your clients. Before property management software came around, agents had to memorize many of their facts and keep everything else in vast amounts of paperwork. Now multiple programs have been created that can keep track of all your data for you.

These programs are very easy to learn how to use. The information you need to record is put into the appropriate fields so you can easily find it. With one program you will be able to keep track of everything you need for your day to day work. The software will also figure out its own calculations so you don?t have to.

One of the best benefits is that it allows you to accurately keep track of all of the information. There is no paperwork you have to file and sort through or worry about losing or misplacing. Everything you need to know is just a few clicks away. You also have the ability to make all of your programs protected with passwords, so only authorized people can access and change it. If you have to travel a lot to different properties it may be best to carry a laptop with the software on it, so you have all of your information wherever you go.

When tax used to come around, real estate agents would have to sort through a year?s worth of old paperwork to find all the information they needed. With the new software you can find everything you need for your taxes right on your computer without hours of searching. IT will take all of your income and expenses if you need to do some calculations and figure it for you so there are no mistakes.

Its always important to know exactly what have available at all times for your clients. Although it is nearly impossible for you to remember every small detail about each property, you management software can. They have unlimited storage space so you can keep track of every important detail you come across.

Every real estate agent has to make printouts once in awhile. Instead of putting one together by hand, wasting hours of your time, you can instead make a few simple selections on your computer and printout what you need. This is a big time saver if you need to do your finances often.

Since these software programs are designed just for real estate agents, you can manipulate and customize the templates provided however you wish. If you ever need extra space for detailed information you will be able to easily add it in. Nearly every kind of real estate agent can benefit from the software, whether you manage an apartment complex or sell houses. When you use these programs you will save yourself time any money, since you won?t have to hire anyone to be your personal secretary.

Compared to other methods of recording, management software is by far the most helpful and advanced. Where real estate agents where once limited by how much they could keep track of at one time, the software makes it several times easier. You will be able to condense all of your paperwork into one program that can store almost unlimited data in a very small space. - 23222

About the Author:

Layla Vanderbilt is the content coordinator for a leading property management software review website which connects people with the leading property management tools.

Online Trading With The Head and Shoulders Top Pattern

By Chris Blanchet

As far as Classic Patterns in technical analysis go, the Head and Shoulders Top formation has got to be one of the most popular and reliable. It is popular because new and seasoned investors can recognize it and reliable because it rarely produces a false positive.

What a Head And Shoulders Top Looks Like Quite simply, the Head and Should Top pattern resembles a human. The head (the highest peak) has two shoulders on each side (smaller peaks). The patterns is formed when a rally experiences a pull-back, followed by another rally that reaches a higher high than the last, and then a third rally (the right shoulder) that reaches the same left as the first (left shoulder).

Technical analysis will take this one step farther by stipulating volume requirements. Essentially, the first peak (left shoulder) will see the heaviest volume as the stock increases. The head and right shoulder will show diminished volume.

Technical Considerations In addition to the visual representation of the three rallies with the second reaching higher and the volume requirement, the head and shoulders top should also have a degree of symmetry where the two shoulders peak at approximately the same price levels. In addition, the neckline, which joins the pullbacks between rallies, can slope up or down, with downward sloping necklines being more bearish and, therefore, more ideal for investors looking to profit from weakness.

Another key point is that the pattern should take shape above a comparable moving average (MA). Typically, the 50-day moving average will work just fine, but investors are advised to use the 200-day moving average for longer-term patterns. And speaking of Moving Averages, the MA should be trending in the same direction as the Head and Shoulders top. If it doesn't, then it simply means the pattern is less reliable.

Trading Considerations Given the bearish implications, traders are advised to sell or go short. When trading based on this technical pattern, investors need to recognize that the longer it took for the pattern to develop, the longer it will take for the price to hit its target. Lastly, investors should also search out longer inbound trends than the duration of the pattern itself, which suggests that the pattern is not simply a period of common consolidation.

The head and shoulders pattern will form on hundreds of securities daily. The question is not whether the pattern exists, but the reliability and strength of the pattern and whether it is strong enough to trade. Given the knowledge needed to properly identify a head and shoulders top, beginning investors and people who demand a more hands-off approach will opt to use trading software and systems instead. - 23222

About the Author:

With more than 16 years of experience as a Financial Advisor for one of the world's largest commercial banks, Chris Blanchet is responsible for the Free Technical Analysis Course at Online Trader Today.com. He also maintains a Debt-Free Blog at How To Repay Debt.com.

How To Make Money Stock Trading

By Michael Swanson

So you want to make money in the stock market. To do that you have to have a method. The only way to make money is to have a plan.

There are two ways two make money in the stock market everyone talks about, but you will be a lot better off if you combine the two of them. I'm talking about growth investing and value investing here. You know buy when it goes up or buy cheap and sell high later. Combine both.

Growth investors invest when they see the potential for big earnings growth in a company and don't worry how about high or low a stock is valued at. All they want is to see earnings growing. William O'Neill of Investor's Business Daily is the most popular growth investor, because he wrote the book How to Make Money in Stocks that shows you how to be a growth investor. He buys stocks in companies that have quarterly earnings growth of 20% or more. If the company has a new product coming out he likes it even better. He also only buys stocks that are acting stronger than other stocks in its group, although many other growth investors do not look for this.

In bull markets it is the growth stocks that go up the most, because everyone likes things that go up and they go up the most. But there are some scary times in the growth stocks. If the earnings growth stops then the stock can fall very hard because everyone thinks everything will grow forever.

At some point this is going to happen, because nothing goes up forever, not even a rocket ship. The big companies we all know about all grew fast when they started out, but most don't grow as fast anymore so they are no longer growth stocks. Think about GE for example.

Because growth stocks tend to be highly valued they are susceptible to large and sudden drops on any negative news. An earnings warning or statements from a CEO that earnings are going to grow at a slower pace are enough to crush investors. Strategies based on growth stock investing do not tell investors to sell until it is too late.

The opposite of growth stock investing is value investing. The most famous value investors are Warren Buffet and his mentor Benjamin Graham. Value investors look for companies with low debt, a high book value, a dividend yield, a high sales-to-price ratio, and a low price-to-earnings ratio, among other things.

In a bear market or a big stock market correction you can find bargains and that is when it is time to think about being a Warren Buffett. It happens all of the time. Investors always get scared from time to time and sell stocks at a stupid price. That is when you can buy.

One problem with value investing is that even after a company's earnings picture improves often its stock does not immediately respond. For instance when the price of gold fell from over 400 to under 260 between 1995 and 1998 the stock of large producing gold companies fell to ridiculously low valuations. However, it took two years for gold stocks to start to rally after they bottomed out.

Value investing strategies usually do not do as well as growth strategies in a bull market, because growth stocks go up more. But they are the best way to get in cheap and sell at a big gain. It can sometimes just take more time than most people can wait for. - 23222

About the Author:

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Following Gold

By Ahmad Hassam

Gold is the ultimate global currency. At one time US Dollar used to be pegged to gold. But with the collapse of the Bretton Woods System, US Dollar was unpegged from gold.

Now US Dollar is only backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government. Most of the currencies in the world are free floating now. Many countries are also purchasing gold in the open markets as a hedge of their foreign reserves most of which are in US Dollar. In the present financial crisis with the global economy in recession, many investors are trying to take refuge in gold as the ultimate safe haven of their wealth from financial turmoil.

The Australian Dollar is known for its strong correlation with gold prices. Most of this is due to the amount of gold that Australia produces and exports. US Dollar has an inverse relationship with gold prices. When gold prices rise, US Dollar falls in value. This causes the currency pair AUD/USD to rise in value.

The opposite of this is also true. When USD gains value, gold usually loses value. The pair AUD/USD depreciates as a result. So when gold prices are rising, we can trade AUD/USD currency pair long. Likewise, when gold falls in value, we can trade AUD/USD short. This relationship may be due to the fact that gold is considered to be the ultimate safe haven of their wealth by investors in times of financial crisis. This relationship provides us with a method that we can use to take advantage of the fundamental factors that influence the currency markets.

Entering a trade to follow gold is a three step process. We will use RSI (Relative Strength Index) as the technical indicator to trigger our trade. If you have read the previous article on following oil, we had used the CCI (Commodity Channel Index).

When both gold and oil are commodities, why is that we are now using RSI instead of CCI? It all depends on how quickly the two indicators react to volatility. CCI gives a quicker signal. This is good for relatively less volatile pairs. Whereas RSI gives slower signals, this is ideal for more volatile pairs like AUD/USD.

You should use a moving average to confirm if gold is in an uptrend or a downtrend. You will use the seven periods RSI on AUD/USD chart. Watch the RSI chart when it enters one of its reversal zones, then move back out of the reversal zone in the same direction as the gold is trending.

You should enter a long trade on AUD/USD if the gold prices are rising and the RSI is crossing back above the 30 line. On the other hand, you should enter a short trade on AUD/USD pair if the gold prices are declining and the RSI is crossing below the 70 line.

You should set a limit order of 200 pips. You should also put a stop loss order of 50 pips for the trade. This risk to reward ratio is good and is (=50/200). The chances are you are going to make $2000 profit (200 pips is equal to $2000 on a standard lot) if the trade goes as you had anticipated. And if the trade does not go in your favor you should be prepared for a $500 loss (500 pips equal $500 on a standard lot). It is not uncommon to have a trade go against you. Only to find yourself right back in trade that goes your way after sometime. - 23222

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading and swing trading stocks and currencies. Discover A Revolutionary New Forex Robot. Develop your own Forex Trading System.

What is a Hedge Fund?

By Sara Ferguson

Heres the first thing you should know about hedge funds: They have no clear identity or definition. In the investment world, I run a hedge fund has the same meaning as Im a consultant in the rest of the business world. The speaker may be managing money and making millions, or she may want a socially acceptable reason for not having a real job. The person who really manages money may go about her business in any number of ways, from highly conservative investing to wildly aggressive risk taking. She may be beating the market handily, or she may be barely squeaking by.

Im not trying to say that the term hedge fund means nothing. Heres the short answer: A hedge fund is a lightly regulated investment partnership that uses a range of investment techniques and invests in a wide array of assets to generate a higher return for a given level of risk than whats expected of normal investments. In many cases, but hardly all, hedge funds are managed to generate a consistent level of return, regardless of what the market does. Before I get to the longer, more complicated explanation of hedge funds, however, it helps to know exactly what hedging is.

Hedging means reducing risk, which is what many hedge funds are designed to do. Maybe youve hedged a risky bet with a friend before by making a conservative bet on the side. But a hedge fund manager doesnt reduce risk by investing in conservative assets. Although risk is usually a function of return (the higher the risk, the higher the return), a hedge fund manager has ways to reduce risk without cutting into investment income. She can look for ways to get rid of some risks while taking on others with an expected good return, often by using sophisticated techniques.

For example, a fund manager can take stock-market risk out of the funds portfolio by selling stock index futures. Or she can increase her return from a relatively low risk investment by borrowing money, known as leveraging. If youre interested in investing in hedge funds, you need to know how the fund managers are making money.

Return is a function of risk. The challenge for the hedge fund manager is to eliminate some risk while gaining return on investments " not a simple task, which is why hedge fund managers get paid handsomely if they succeed. - 23222

About the Author:

How to Invest Today is a site dedicated to helping beginning investors learn the basics to the advanced of investing.