Secrets of Making Money from Real Estate - Part 5

Where to from here:

One property is great, but It wont make you very wealthy. Below is the expansionary model of what I think a good real estate portfolio should look like.

The Real Estate Investment Pyramid

Can be viewd here www.use-your-equity.com/realestateinvesting.htm

How this works is simple. Acquire three positive cash flow properties which help support a larger capital gains property. Lets look at the example:

Cash flow property 1, worth $80,000 returns $1750 dollars a year with capital growth of 3.5%

Cash flow property 2, worth $70,000 returns $1200 dollars a year with capital growth of 4%

Cash flow property 3, worth $120,000 returns $2500 dollars a year with capital growth of 2%

Capital gains property, worth $250,000 returns -$500 dollars a year with capital growth of 12.5%

As you can see the capital gains property looses money. The reason why the model is in a pyramid shape is because the cash flow properties support the capital gains property.

Why don't I just by all really high growth properties with cash flow? You can! It's just that finding a property with very high cash flow and a high growth percentage might take more time and could be more harder. Really, there's nothing stopping you but It will generally be easier to find cash flow properties and capital gains properties.

So why should I do this?

In five years time cash flow property one will be worth $95,000. Cash flow property 2 is worth $85,000. Cash flow property 3 is worth $132,500. The capital gains property is now worth $450,000! The whole investment portfolio is now worth $762,000. If we assume the mortgages on all the properties was 90%, you now have $294,000 of equity you can use!

You could sell all the properties and make a nice profit of $294,000 but you'd probably have to pay a capital gains tax of 33% (depends on where you live) not to mention real estate agent fees. Perhaps we could use the profit as a down payment on another property, tax free.

1030 Tax Exchange Example

In America a good strategy is that when you make capital gains from a property you should sell it and buy a more valuable property. Normally you would be taxed but not if you use the 1030 tax-deferred exchange. This entails, using the profits of the real estate properties which you sold to reinvest in a more valuable property. So if we look at the previous example, you now have $294,000 which you can use on a deposit for a new property.

Lets say you buy a larger rental property with a deposit of $294,000 dollars. If you can get 90% financing you can buy an asset worth $2,940,000! Just imagine how much cash flow you could get from a property worth that much!

However, there is little room to "Do it yourself" while using the 1030 tax exchange. The money must be held by a qualified accommodator until you purchase the property. You will have 45 days to draw up a list of potential properties you will buy. You also have 180 days to settle on a property. The properties must also be similar, for example you can sell a bare piece of land and buy a bigger bare piece of land. This is why It's important to talk to an accountant or an attorney before you try this.

This article is a general guideline on how to invest in property, residential in specific. If you are seriously considering buying property try to take in some knowledge from this article. Don't stop there though. Because real estate investing can involve so many tax advantages and laws, learn more about real estate investing in your country/state so you can become an expert.

This article was written by John Whiteside. The original article can be found here http://www.use-your-equity.com/realestateinvesting.html . Use-Your-Equity can show you how to create value in your home, then show you how to use the newly created equity to make money. http://www.use-your-equity.com for more information.

There is something emotionally charged about the buying and selling of New York high-end real estate. How else to explain the juggernaut of reality TV shows about high-end brokers?

After 30 years of marriage, Sharon and Michael Newman decided it was finally time to move from the Catskills to New York City.

On blocks near Kissena Park streets are quiet, houses are small, and the electricity that charges the atmosphere in downtown Flushing is nowhere to be found.

A five-story, seven-bedroom house in Brooklyn Heights has sweeping views of New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline.

Demand is so intense that there are waiting lists in some buildings, and a few landlords report that eager renters are even bidding up rents.

Sales at the very high end of the market barely missed a beat in the recession. But that prosperity hasn’t yet trickled down.

A Flatiron condo, a Midtown South co-op and a Brooklyn Heights carriage house.

A four-bedroom ranch in Montclair, N.J., and a four-bedroom colonial Cape in Babylon, N.Y.

For a century, Roosevelt Island housed a grim penitentiary. It was demolished in the 1930s.

More borrowers are opting for fixed-rate loans with terms other than the standard 30 or 15 years, especially when it comes to refinancings.

Two more glass skyscrapers are added to a group of towers on the waterfront of Long Island City.

Insurance coverage for a co-op unit; when a tenant is ‘blacklisted’; a co-op is smaller than estimated.

The market for $500,000-to-$600,000 houses in Westchester has become especially active.

A shaky real estate market means more sellers are providing buyer concessions, from gift cards to help with paying property taxes.

Houses of worship are adaptable to residential and other uses as congregations dwindle.

Nearly two million Americans could benefit from mortgage relief from the nation’s biggest banks, as part of a broad government settlement to be announced on Thursday.

A cold war-era satellite relay station is for sale in California after a Silicon Valley mogul gave up on plans to turn it into a weekend home.

How can I make my front porch more appealing to buyers?

Court hearings meant to protect New York homeowners from foreclosure are hopelessly slowed by endless paperwork and requests for additional information.

The Bay Area and Silicon Valley expect the windfall from the Facebook stock offering to make their in-demand region even hotter.

The house, designed by the architect Eric Fisher, looms over the street like a big industrial arm.

A town house in Dallas, a midcentury modern in Rhode Island and a Tudor in Denver.

Prices in some parts of the country are still off by as much as 25 percent from their 2007 peak.

Trinity Church is the largest landlord in Hudson Square and is part of the effort to rezone the area to residential from manufacturing.

Rising oil prices and a boom in shale exploration are leading companies to add office space in the Houston area, most notably Exxon Mobil.

Ms. de França is the president and chief executive of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, which focuses on new residential developments.

Meet the real estate broker’s interns: an ambitious group willing to do anything, earn nothing and wake up early on a Sunday to fluff the couch cushions at open houses.

A Flatiron condo, a Midtown South co-op and a Brooklyn Heights carriage house.

A four-bedroom ranch in Montclair, N.J., and a four-bedroom colonial Cape in Babylon, N.Y.

Homes in Dallas, Rhode Island and Denver.

Compare the cost of renting and buying equivalent homes.

For recently divorced men, a new breed of decorators offers help navigating a strange new world.

Plants that light up the winter garden can be found at Broken Arrow Nursery in Connecticut, which has long been a favorite of gardening geeks.

A sister in need drew the painter Beverly McIver back home to North Carolina, unaware that a new beginning was in store for both of them.

A jewelry designer finds striking new objects for storage.

Timothy Sakamoto and Jochen Repolust are part of the small but growing niche making mobile apps focused on specific works of architecture.

To promote an auction of 20th- and 21st-century design, the interior designer Stephen Sills has created a preview exhibition in an apartment at the Apthorp.

Fishs Eddy now sells plates acquired from the archives of the now-defunct Syracuse China Corporation, many more than 100 years old.

The designer Russell Greenberg creates custom baby rattles with ends shaped like profiles of mom and dad.