Fact and Myth about Apartment Square Footage

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How important is the square footage of a rental apartment? Can you expect a 1,000 square-foot, one-bedroom apartment to rent for more than a one-bedroom apartment with only 900 square feet? Most rents of apartments are based on ‘x’ number of bedrooms per unit. An apartment that has two bedrooms will rent for more than a one-bedroom unit. Market conditions are the primary determining factor. However, when the building is suffering because of the size of the apartments or lack of closet space, the square footage consideration then becomes important.

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How to sell your property?

Sell Property

Once the determination has been made to sell your property the next consideration is how to go about it. Remember, the value of an investment property is in direct proportion to the income it is producing. You can try advertising your property yourself, but you may consider listing it exclusively with a knowledgeable investment property agent in order to obtain best results. He has the leads and contacts that you may never be able to locate on your own. If you want to sell it yourself, several things you need to know about the ad that you run on your property are discussed in this article.

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Why you should not make a verbal offer?

Verbal Offer

Try not to make a verbal offer to a seller. Why? The proper way to negotiate a purchase is to prepare a formal written offer to purchase, spelling out all of the terms and conditions under which you want to acquire the property. Equally important is that the executed offer to purchase will be accompanied by an earnest money deposit cheque, preferably in the amount of two to five percent of the offering price. You cannot buy a new car without signing a contract and making a deposit, so do not expect to purchase a property without one.

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How to negotiate the purchase?

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Purchasing real estate is a unique experience. Even the most experienced investors like to “haggle” or negotiate the price. Before entering into a formal offer to purchase the property you have selected, you need to understand what will probably happen when you start to negotiate and what you need to prepare in order to get what you want.

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When you should sell your property?

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How do you decide when it’s time to sell your property? The average individual has an annual physical examination to check up on his physical condition. Your investment, like you, needs an annual check-up to ensure it is still functioning well and is healthy. There are four possible motivating factors, any of which will tell you it’s time to get out of you present real estate investment and into another.

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Do you still want to invest in real estate through a company?

house

Some investors have been asking us about the tax benefits they may enjoy if they invest real estate through a company. Common understanding is that a company enjoys more deductibles than an individual in terms of tax benefits. Most investors understand also in Malaysia if you have 4 or more rental properties, then your rental income can be considered as a business income. What most people don’t know is that there are terms and conditions that restrict you to enjoy tax advantages on this “business income”, particularly the definition of an investment holding company. If you are just started to invest in real estate or you just owned a few properties, you better calculate carefully before you incorporate a company to invest in real estate.

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Is the bear market returning?

Bear Market Chase

Markets have been wobbly for at least the last week or so in any case. But the big blow to confidence yesterday was the Washington-based World Bank’s announcement that the economy was in an even worse state than it had thought as far back as three months ago. In March, the World Bank reckoned the global economy would shrink by 1.7% this year. Now, despite a three-month stock market rally, it reckons it’ll shrink by 2.9%!

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Bad experience with a mortgage broker

Mortgage Broker

Last year, we came to know a mortgage broker who helps property buyers to apply for mortgage loans from several banks. When we first met, we didn’t pay much attention about his side business in insurance. After a few months, things started to show that we have made a mistake. Our bad experience with this mortgage broker does not affect our view about the insurance itself. It taught us a lesson about working with people with different expertise and interests. We do believe there are people who can master and do well in more than one job. But we never believe one can do well in jobs that have conflict of interests.

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Why do you need to pay so much interest to bank?

Bank interest rate

In real estate investment, or maybe all other kinds of investment, what we emphasise most is the maximum return – how can we get the highest return from the minimum amount of money invested? Stay focused on the maximum return that you can get from real estate investment instead of the interest that you pay to bank. Interest is only part of your costs of investment. Just take all the costs into account before you calculate your return, and then choose the right strategy to go for maximum return.

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What is MRTA and do you really need it?

MRTA

To most of the investors, taxes and insurance create a cash drain of money that can be invested elsewhere. People always want to know how they can pay the minimum, if not zero, for taxes and insurance. In our previous article, we discussed about the “Top six tax deductions for landlords” that may help real estate investors in a way to minimise their taxes. In this article, we will talk about an insurance specially designed for mortgage loan borrower – MRTA.

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