assets

7 Main Reasons Why Rental Properties Are the Best Investment

/ nancyrubin

Although investment options is the term usually associated with the business circles,the truth is that this genie has long since left the bottle and ventured among the laymen. Recent economic crises have taught the older workforce that guaranteed jobs no longer exist, while the Millennial generation has developed a growing obsession with retiring as early as possible. A solution to both these problems lies in using the earned money to establish other ongoing sources of wealth. Here are seven reasons why rental properties should be your number one option.

You can purchase properties using leverage

In other words,even if you’re not able the pay the upfront price of the investment, you can secure the missing funds by borrowing the money from the bank, which is not the case with other popular investing options such as stocks. Of course, this means spending some time using returns to repay the debt, but time is your ally here. Because of the inflation,the price of the properties is constantly on the rise. Even if you are not making new investments, at some point, you will be able to raise the rent.

You are investing in a tangible asset

Investing in a business leaves you with a risk of ending up with nothing if the business fails. Properties are much different. Sure, you may face occasional value drops, but there’s no real way properties can fail because no matter what happens you still own a valuable asset you can later resell. This tangible, real-life value makes rental properties a very forgiving first-time investment for all newcomers that have yet to sharpen their business teeth.

You have direct control over your investment

Another thing that should be interesting to less experienced investors is that, as opposed to stocks and various trusts, properties give you full control over the fate of your investment. Here, finding a hot property is the hardest part of the job,and people who don’t have years of experience in the market should probably ask for the professional property investment advice.But, once the papers are finally signed and keys are passed to new owners,managing the assets is considerably easier.

A place to live is a basic necessity

Ever since the dawn of mankind, people always needed a place to live. And the number of living people is constantly on the rise. These two facts make properties more worthwhile than even the most lingering industries in the history. Tech trends are rising and falling, and even the fossil fuels are slowly going out of business. On the other, the number of people who will need affordable housing until they have enough funds to buy their own properties is only going to grow as the time goes by.

You are using a proven business model

Investing in rental properties is a business practice used by countless generations before us. There’s been more than enough time for us to discover all the possible dangers and learn how to avoid them. Today, the job of an average landlord is pretty simple and straightforward. The rules are already laid, and all the contracts are already written. Because of this strong foundation, new investors have a much easier job making their rental fortunes.

An opportunity for diverse investments

Unlike some other industries where finding an access point is very hard and buying a way in impossible for people with shallow pockets, the rental market is much more accessible and has to offer something for everyone ranging from small landlords to real estate barons. Single-family houses, multi-family properties, high end and low-end apartments, office buildings and office spaces… the list goes on and on, and even the lower tiers of the market are stacked with investment options with potential for great returns.

Freedom to establish other income sources

Finally, rental properties require very little actual maintenance, or any work whatsoever. As a matter of fact, aside from major remodeling that comes every couple of years, landlord’s monthly routine can be performed in a matter of hours, leaving you with more than enough time to commit yourself to a full-time job or another more time-consuming investments.This makes rental properties a perfect option for people looking for an early retirement.

As we can see, buying a rental property is very affordable,forgiving and accessible way for people to make their first investments. More adventures businessmen will probably be turned off by the fact that rental fees produce very stable, but also very slow returns, so this is definitely not the place for the sharks looking for overnight fortunes. But, for all those who seek safety rather than high turnarounds and need more free time to branch out to other fields, the rental market is more than worth checking out. 

About the author: Mike Johnston is a home improvement and business blogger from Sydney.He is a regular writer at SmoothDecorator and contributor on several interior design, real estate and eco-friendly blogs. Mike’s goal is to create and share meaningful content that helps and inspires people.

Some Of The Best Ways To Protect Your Business Financially

/ nancyrubin

It’s no great secret that if you want to run a business while and for the long term, you need to make sure that you are protecting it financially as well as you possibly can. Of Course, it can be difficult to do this if you are not sure exactly how, and the truth is that it often takes a prior knowledge, or plenty of research, to ensure that you have a good grasp of what you really need to do. In this article, we are going to take a look at just a few of the things you can do to ensure that you are protecting your business financially as well as you possibly can, and that is something which you should always aim for in the life of any business.

Insurance

You might well have been aware of the fact that insurance can be helpful for a business, but it is almost certain that you haven’t thought of every kind of insurance which might benefit you and your company. There are a number of different kinds of insurance, in fact, which you can think of trying out, and you will find that the more protected you are in this way, the safer you feel on the whole, so it’s worth looking at. Having insurance for your building, contents and everything else of that sort is vital, but you should also think about insuring against potential future losses too. Having Professional Indemnity Insurance – Qdos Contractor or otherwise – can help you to protect your own finances if you are at the receiving end of a claim in which it is claimed you have caused a customer financial loss. Preparing for these kinds of situations is invaluable, and something that you should be aiming to do as early on as possible.

Legality

One of the biggest ways that companies need to pay out is by getting in trouble legally in some manner or another. So in general you will find that it is financially sensible to make sure that you stay out of trouble with the law, and that you don’t do anything which could cause you to have to pay out large amounts. This is easier said than done, and in fact many businesses accidentally get in trouble with the law. But having a legal advisor can be a great way to get around this, as can ensuring that your tax accountant is happy with what you are doing. These preventative measures will ultimately mean that you are much less likely to be in financial trouble in the future, so it’s clearly definitely worth it.

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Assets

You must know your assets if you are to protect your business financially, as knowing where the actual money lies ensures that you can do something about it when you are in a position of struggling. If you don’t really know your assets, you might want to think about looking into whether or not you can list them, as this will ensure that you are in a better financial position overall anyway.

Improve Your #Asset #Management Process in #2016

/ nancyrubin

assetmgmtIn the grand scheme of what makes running a business exciting, asset management probably isn’t at the top of the list.

But managing your company’s tools, software, and computers is one of the most important tasks you can undertake.

Fortunately there are a number of new technologies and strategies business owners can deploy in the New Year that make asset management easier and give the whole process a better rap.

Retire Old Assets

Just as you personally have New Year’s resolutions, your business should too.

Resolve to purge your company of assets you no longer need. Holding on to outdated or even broken assets takes up valuable space and can give you a false sense of what you’re actually working with.

If you’re running a creative advertising agency for example, you may think that you have several DSLR cameras ready to use for a client’s campaign when in actuality one is broken and the other is missing a charger.

By making sure to retire non-functioning assets now, you can avoid problems later.

Beware Consumables Cost Creep

Even though the term “asset management” is all-encompassing, most people only associate it with high cost items like vehicles, specialized machinery, or expensive computers.

But even things like ink toner and photo paper are assets and if you don’t keep tabs on your stock room’s inventory, those costs can add up.

Resolve in the New Year to check in with what you actually have and track how frequently these items get used up over the course of the year.

Invest in Workflow Software

workflowKeeping track of assets using spreadsheets is a dated practice.

It takes far too much time to be cost-effective and because it’s a manual process there’s increased liability.

As the article “How to Get a Better Grip on Your Asset Management Process” explains, workflow software is your friend when it comes to managing assets.

Software can help your company in terms of automation and ensuring that there is a central hub of accurate information anyone can understand.

Prepare for Possible Audits

Another often overlooked aspect of asset management is tracking software licenses.

Going into 2016, you’ll want to know what programs are running on which computers and who is responsible for using them.

You may find that there is more installations than there are licenses and that needs to be resolved.

Likewise, you may discover that you’ve purchased software that not everyone needs on their work device and eliminating that redundancy can save money.

Going back to the creative ad agency example, your copywriters probably don’t need expensive photo editing programs on their laptops when there are free image altering apps available.

Asset Management doesn’t need to be a tedious hassle.

By investing in workflow software, purging old assets, and tracking licenses you can ring in the New Year with a more refined asset management process.

About the Author: Kristin Livingstone writes on a variety of topics including asset management and small business.