Tenant Contact Information

By Cody Scholberg

Finally, you are in charge of the building. You can call yourself "the landlord." First thing on your checklist is to collect your new tenant's information; you will need to be able to contact them.

The first and most important thing to remember is that you must smile. Always, always smile.

Worry not, for collecting information from tenants is quick and easy, usually. You are in charge, and you must remember this. Do not forget that you are the boss. That being said, don't be a jerk either. Be firm, fair, and friendly. Do not forget these three Fs.

Fill your voice with confidence and stand up straight. If you lack either of these qualities, you will be stamped upon in the landlording business. Tenants will take advantage of you and treat you with no respect if they see that you are a coward. If you are a coward, then fake it.

Tenants like, respect, and desire a landlord that knows what he is doing; they desire a landlord who is in control of the situation. Be sure that you are coming off like this. Also, don't forget to smile.

Just ask them for their information, that's all. Occasionally, you'll have a tenant who seems suspicious at your asking their information. Gently explain to them the reasons why you need it.

For example, if you are asking for their cell phone or work number, ask them if they would like to be notified if there was a fire or a creep lurking outside their windows.

You can assure them that, without their social security numbers, their on-time payments will not be reported to the credit bureaus. You will need to check their payment histories as well to know what kind of tenants you are dealing with. Do not forget to smile.

If you encounter any resistance, let them know that it is for their own benefit. If they do not want to give out their phone numbers for fear of receiving harassing or telemarketing phone calls, assure them that you will take every precaution you can to keep their number from getting out. And, be sure to smile.

If you just cannot get the information out of them, forget it. It is not worth fighting with them.

You can ask other sources, the previous landlord, etc. for their information. You can, without much effort, find their information from other sources.

After you get their information, put it away in a safe place. Congratulations! That was not too bad, was it? - 23222

About the Author:

Cody Scholberg, a recognized expert of property management, has articles at Commercial Property Management Guide, a source of landlording material. Check out this short checklist for choosing good tenants.

How To Approach Real Property Flipping

By Arthur Butler

Real estate investment can be a lucrative field. It has been made popular by stories and television shows about people who made money by piece of real estate flipping. House flipping is when you buy a low-cost home and renovate it, then sell it at a much higher price.

The television show "Flip That House" makes property flipping sound easy. But in reality, this type of business, and property investing in general, can be difficult and risky. If you are going to go into real estate, it's important to avoid certain mistakes.

The best and most important thing you can do as a real estate investor is make solid plans before your first investment.

It is unwise to simply see a house for sale and decide to buy it. That property might tie up al your assets so that you can't improve the property, might be in a poor location for rental purposes, or might take more time to sell than you can afford. Instead, prior to investing in real estate, you need to make a budget.

Your budget should include how much money you can afford to keep tied up in a home (you need to have adequate cash flow to pay for renovations, property managers, or other expenses) and how much time you can afford to spend dealing with this property. Sometimes a real estate investment will take up to twice as long to come to fruition as you expect, so it's important to make sure you can wait that long to see profits.

MYTH #3: You can run a real estate business by yourself.

This may be true at the beginning, when you're dealing with just one investment. Even that can be overwhelming, as you will soon see. You have to find the right house, finalize the purchase, take care of maintenance and repairs, find renters or buyers, and so on. You also have to deal with tax laws and monthly mortgage payments. If your business becomes successful and you decide to make several investments at once, your workload will quadruple.

For all these reasons, you probably are going to end up needing to employ helpers at some point. The real estate investment business runs more smoothly when you have people you can trust to help run it. This means putting in the effort to find the right people, in addition to everything else you have to do, and losing some profit to pay their salaries. It's worth it, however, for the peace of mind and financial profits you will reap.

As your real estate business grows, you might want to purchase several properties at once. You soon will need to hire others to help out in the business. A successful real estate investment business is impossible to run singlehandedly.

House flipping--buying low and selling high--is popular thanks to the news media. However, the entire real estate investment industry does not revolve around this practice. Many people rent out properties or convert them into bed-and-breakfasts. It is a good practice to have a back-up plan for making money off a given home in case renters aren't interested or you can't afford significant improvements.

Real estate investment is a serious business enterprise. With forethought, patience, and effort you can make an excellent income. - 23222

About the Author:

Arranging investment property loans has become increasingly difficult throughout the credit crisis, and not many are under the illusion that things will become any easier quickly. The property investment market is still a risky proposition, and proper planning needs to be undertaken.

Currency Profile Of Euro (Part I)

By Ahmad Hassam

The European Union consists of fifteen member countries that include France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Out of these 15 countries, 12 common currency countries constitute the European Monetary Union (EMU). Except Denmark, Sweden and United Kingdom, all these above countries share the common currency Euro. These 12 countries share a single monetary policy dictated by the European Central Bank (ECB).

EMU has a highly developed and efficient fixed income, equity and the futures market. The EMU is the worlds second largest economic powerhouse after the United States. This makes EMU the second most attractive investment market for domestic and international investors.

US assets have had solid returns historically. United States absorbs something like 70% of the total foreign savings as a result. In the past, the EMU had difficulty in attracting foreign direct investment or large capital inflows. The primary reason was the United States. The present global financial crisis has hurt the US and EU economies deeply. It is expected that a major restructuring of the global financial system will take place eventually that makes EMU far more attractive.

However, the Euros importance is expected to increase with the introduction of the Euro and the EMU beginning to incorporate even more members in Eastern Europe. The capital flows to Europe is expected to increase.

With foreign central banks expected to diversify their Euro reserve holdings even further, demand for Euro is expected to continue rising. EMU is in fact a trade driven and a capital flow driven economy. Trade is very important to the national economies within EMU.

EMU has significant power in the international trade arena because of the size of the EMUs trade with the rest of the world. EU exports comprise almost 20% of the world trade. While EU accounts for only 17% of the world imports! Unlike United States, EMU does not have large trade deficit or surplus.

International clout is one of the primary reasons in the formation of EU. The formation of EU allows individual member countries to group as one entity and negotiates on an equal playing field with the United States. United States is the largest trading partner of EU.

Leading export markets for EU are the United States, Switzerland, Japan, Poland and China. Leading import sources for EU are United States, Japan, China, Switzerland and Russia.

EU is primarily a service oriented economy. Services account for more than 70% of the EU economy while manufacturing, mining and utilities account for around 20% of the EU economy. Large numbers of EU based companies concentrate their research, design, innovation and marketing part of the activity in EU while outsourcing most of their manufacturing to Asia.

Most international trade transactions involve the British Pound, the Japanese Yen and the US Dollar. It is important for most of the countries to hold large amounts of reserve currencies to reduce exchange rate risk and transaction costs. - 23222

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try Strignano's Forex Signals free. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot Trading System!

Investments In Australian Stock Market

By Michael Kaufmann

Investors interested in the Australian stock market should be inspired by the minimal delays in the stock trading, since the all-electronic system has been implemented. The added bonus of direct transactions with investors are due to the fact that there is none of those market markers for ordinary shares or loss of stop orders in SEATS, which is the all-electronic trading system.

Gone is the call system, in which exchange employees called "chalkies" would write on chalkboards to indicate bids and asks. Now traders can place their orders via the internet, and brokers normally put them directly in touch with the electronic trading system. Accordingly, online trading has become increasingly popular, fuelled by the new automated trading tools that have become available, such as trading bots.

This broadens the spectrum of investors in the Australian stock market. As a matter of fact, mock-trading exchange opportunities for students by the ASX include the use of $50,000 to invest into the stock market. This provides student with knowledge on how to trade and buy stocks on the ASX. This is an ingenuous way to soften the learning curve for the future stock traders of the Australian stock market. The Sharemarket game is spaced out around a six-month cycle, and is an ever increasing popular school agenda item. However, the sharemarket can be entered into by other potential stock traders, and is not just for students.

The ASX has become what is now called the Australian Association Stock Exchanges. The ASX has been around since the late 1800s, and over the past 100 years, has become the large exchanger that it is today. The ASX has the power to police other stock companies, but it cannot be police its own company. The company is publicly owned. The ASX has limited its share owners to only being able to invest up to 15% in the company.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commissions or also known at the ASIC, regulate the small shares, the ASX does trade in the market. The Ministry can also be involved in the conditions related to the ASX licensing and operating rules.

There are several indices maintained by the ASX in conjunction with Standard and Poors (S&P), including the S&P/ASX 300, 200, 100, 50, and 20. For investors wishing to follow the Australian stock market and its indices, a number of companies offer consultation and guidance. One such company is the Intelligent Investor, which is a group of independent investing experts who give customised advice to members. A free trial membership is available, and full membership includes a 100% money-back guarantee. - 23222

About the Author:

Michael Kaufmann is a well known journalist and traveler from Germany. He writes for several important newspapers about topics such as Stock Exchange in Australia, Invest Share Market, commodity, currency speculations and much other which attract attention of many readers.

Got The Foreclosure Notice??? Now What?

By Doc Schmyz

Foreclosures are a nasty "monsters", apart from the worry and stress of possibly losing all you own, is the fact that you lose all control over the sale process. Not to mention your self image takes a heck of a beating.

The painful honest truth is that the finance company is only looking after it's own interests. There is no emotions involved here and they will take offers that do not even fully cover the debt, let alone recover some of your equity. To them this is just business.

Do not let it happen if you can help it. Take on another job, get your wife to take in laundry. Rake up the cash the best you can. Everyone has ways we can cut back or living expenses and increase our income a little. Don't let yourself fall victim to your pride...yes this means you delivering pizza is indeed an option.

Think outside the box, maybe attempt to sell the property yourself. If the property market is difficult, advertise to exchange/swap your house for something cheaper. Look at how the property could earn you money. Maybe it has an apartment attached that could be rented out. Maybe it has a room at the back of the garage to rent out. Perhaps it might have an extra garage to rent out. If it is a big house maybe you could take in lodgers or students and charge them for room and board. All these little things will help to pay off your mortgage. Your still in charge of how the situation will end up.

Another thing to look at is simply getting another loan and paying off the original mortgage. Look at ways to restructure the loan so that your repayments are lower than you are currently paying. You could pay over 40 years instead of 25 years. Maybe you could have half the loan over 40 years and half on interest only repayments with the ability to reduce the principal with lump sum repayments when you have the extra funds available.

If a foreclosure is getting closer and you have been unsuccessful in averting it. You can accept the inevitable or you can fight the " monster" and take drastic action. However, if it means saving the equity in your house it may be worth it. - 23222

About the Author:

Doc Schmyz has invested all over the US and Canada. He built a free free website shares Real estate investing information for all over the US. Find real estate information by state