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Investing in Real
Estate
Are you a speculator or investor? Great fortunes
can be made AND lost in real estate. CMPS
professionals are committed, qualified and equipped
to help you implement the seven keys to profitable
real estate investment:
- Determine Level of
Liquidity:
- Liquidity is the
ability to quickly convert an investment
into cash, without losing any of the
principal that you've invested. For example,
a savings account is highly liquid. In
contrast, real estate is considered to have
low liquidity because of the time it takes
to sell the property and the
unpredictability of the market value at the
time you are ready to sell. The greatest
real estate fortunes have been lost by those
who overextended themselves and didn't have
enough liquidity to weather to ups and downs
in the real estate market. CMPS
professionals help you implement strategies
to maintain high levels of liquidity to be
able to weather the storms in the
marketplace and take advantage of profitable
investment opportunities
- Determine Level of
Marketability:
- Marketability is the
ability to convert an investment into cash
quickly, at any price. For example, stocks
can be sold anytime on an organized stock
exchange at the prevailing market value.
However, the price at which the stock is
sold can produce a loss for the investor who
selling the stock. With real estate, not
only will you need to deal with market
conditions, there will be real costs to
consider whenever you sell a property such
as brokerage fees, marketing fees and title
insurance. CMPS professionals help you
invest with a business plan and avoid the
marketability risks associated with real
estate speculation.
- Determine the Impact of
Leverage:
- Leverage is the use of
borrowed funds to finance a portion of the
purchase price of an investment. The ratio
of borrowed funds to the total purchase
price is known as the loan-to-value (or LTV)
ratio. A high LTV would result in high
leverage, while a low LTV would result in
low leverage. Real estate investments can be
more leveraged than most other types of
investments. Sometimes, mortgage debt
results in 'negative leverage'. In this
case, you should avoid mortgage debt or sell
the investment. Other times, mortgage debt
results in 'positive leverage' and can
enhance your rate of return on investment.
CMPS professionals help you avoid the trap
of negative leverage while maximizing the
benefits of positive leverage.
- Evaluate the Investment
Management Issues:
- There are really two
levels of monitoring and managing a real
estate investment:
- Asset Management -
this is where you monitor the financial
performance of the investment and make
changes as needed. With stocks and
bonds, you consult with an investment
advisor, and/or a CPA to determine when
to buy and sell investments. With real
estate investments, CMPS professionals
are qualified to serve as 'real estate
investment advisors' and give you solid
advice in this area.
- Property
management - involves the overall
day-to-day operation of the property and
the physical maintenance of the building
or buildings. Property management can
include rent collection, paying the
taxes, insurance and utilities, the
exterior maintenance such as
landscaping, snow removal and roof
issues, as well as interior maintenance
such as plumbing, painting, flooring,
walls, kitchens, etc. Property
management can become a huge trap for
you if you don't give it the proper
evaluation prior to purchasing an
investment. Obviously, unless you want
to fix leaky toilets and gets calls from
tenants at all hours of the night, you
should seriously consider engaging in a
professional relationship with a
management company. Remember, time is
money. If you want to make money in real
estate, don't waste or lose your time,
because if you waste or lose your time,
you are in effect losing money.
- Properly Calculate Your
Rate of Return
- CMPS professionals are
able to help you calculate and compare your
internal rate of return or investment yield
on current or potential investments.
Investment yields are very useful for
comparing investment alternatives. There are
many different types of investment yield
calculations that can be used to analyze the
profitability of an investment. CMPS
professionals help you determine which
investments to keep, sell, or purchase based
on your target investment yield. CMPS
professionals also help you determine how to
modify the cash flows, purchase price and
sales price to reach your target investment
yield. Additionally, CMPS professionals help
you determine which mortgage products and
strategies will give you the greatest return
on your investment.
- Consider the Tax Impact
of Your Investment Decisions
- This includes such
issues as:
- Classifications of
passive, active and portfolio income and
losses
- Capital gains
taxes
- Income taxes
- Tax Credits
- Tax deductions
- Tax Deferments
- CMPS professionals
help you determine your before and after-tax
rate of return on real estate investments.
CMPS professionals also work with your CPA
in determining the best tax strategies for
your situation.
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- Evaluate and Reduce
Investment Risk
- Risk is the
possibility of losing either the principal
invested and/or the potential income from
the investment. CMPS professionals help you
reduce investment risk in several ways:
- Risk Analysis -
This is the process of evaluating
alternative investments based on their
level of risk. Risk analysis can be done
using industry-accepted rates of return
and allowances for risk, or it can be
done on an individual basis. Each
investor has a different tolerance for
risk, depending on their tax status,
their capacity for leverage, their
financial situation, etc. For example,
if you can earn 15% per year on an
investment with a tenant who signs a
five year lease, versus 20% per year on
an investment with a tenant who signs a
two year lease, is it worth the extra
risk of not having a tenant after two
years for you to accept the 20% rate of
return versus the 15% rate of return.
- Shifting risk -
CMPS professionals help you structure
your leases and rent agreements to shift
the exposure of increasing costs to the
tenants. This can include shifting the
risk of rising interest rates, operating
expenses or tax increases.
- Due diligence
prior to purchasing an investment
property. Due diligence is the process
of examining a property and related
documents such as appraisals,
inspections, environmental surveys and
title work in order to reduce risk. By
helping you apply a consistent standard
of inspection and investigation, CMPS
professionals help you determine whether
to purchase a property, or move on to
the next deal. You should always be
prepared to walk away from an investment
if it does not meet your predetermined
standards and criteria.
- Investing with the
right entity. CMPS professionals work
with your real estate attorney to help
you structure different 'entities' such
as LLCs, Partnerships and Corporations
to limit losses to your initial capital
contribution into the investment.
- Diversification -
Investing in multiple investment
properties with varying risk levels
reduces the chance that all the
investments will be affected by the same
turn of events. By keeping all your real
estate equity in your primary residence,
you are not diversifying your real
estate portfolio. On the other hand, if
you spread your real estate equity and
investment dollars over multiple
properties, you would be hedging your
real estate risk and diversifying your
portfolio. On the same token, you need
to be careful not to spread yourself too
thin and not to invest without a
business plan. If you end up with 10
mortgage payments on 10 vacant
properties with no tenants, you would
end up in a very precarious financial
situation. CMPS professionals help you
diversify your investment portfolio to
include real estate while also
diversifying your real estate investment
portfolio itself
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