Finding the best way to participate in real estate

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Most people buy real estate to find a place to turn into their home. Others, however, use real estate as an investment vehicle. Real estate investing has definitely become more popular over the last fifty years as good market conditions provided many opportunities for big profit.

However, buying, owning, and maintaining a property can be more complicated than investing in stocks and bonds. Therefore, deciding to participate in real estate requires careful planning to ensure that it yields significant profits.

In deciding to invest in real estate, one should first consider one’s own inclination and situation. With investments, one should aim to match the property type with one’s skills, financial capacity, risk tolerance, and schedule.

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On the lower risk end of the spectrum, there are properties like single-family to three-family apartments or flats. There are many readily available resources on this property type, so doing research on what is required should be easy.

If one has more capital and more time to devote to real estate endeavors, one can also opt to invest in larger multi-family property like apartment buildings. These can range from four- unit to 32-unit buildings or clusters. Higher returns, of course, mean higher risks and higher effort.

Investing in commercial property can also be more attractive but these types also come with various problems like higher risks, fierce competition, and seasonal constraints. Commercial property development also requires the investor to have a good background in construction and the ability to make snap decisions.

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Overall, selecting the best way to participate in real estate requires a good understanding of how each property functions, how economic factors affect the investment, and knowing the protocols for evaluation. Apart from learning the process, an investor will also need to accumulate experience and knowledge to make good decisions based on available data.

Tony Hartman of Denver is a senior managing partner at Mark Private Capital LLC, a firm that is focused on bridge financing for business and real estate opportunities. Find more resources on real estate investing through this Google+ page.

Tips for becoming a better investor

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Like many things in life, success in investing lies in sticking to and mastering the fundamentals. However, it can be tempting to look for faster ways to earn big and neglect many of the basic tasks. For beginner investors who want to improve, here are some of the tasks that should never be neglected:

- Saving up. This should be the starting point for anyone who’s aiming for financial independence. Unfortunately, many neglect to put away money for savings. While saving can be hard, it is a necessary task and everyone should make an effort to put away a significant part of their earnings into their savings.

- Investing in stocks. While many successful investors have found a gold mine in stocks, a few novice ones believe in the potential of stocks and mutual funds as long term investments.

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- Learning to manage the account. Learning to build a diversified portfolio of stocks and low-cost mutual funds on one’s own allows one to accumulate more wealth due to lower costs.

- Diversify. It makes sense to spread one’s assets to a few stocks because some investments can fail.

- Look at the long term. Many beginner investors may get tempted by schemes that promise to get them rich quickly. If something sounds too good to be true, then it might be best to steer clear from it.

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Tony Hartman of Denver is the senior managing partner of Mark Capital LLC. For more resources on investing, visit this: Google+ page.

The rising demand for multi-family housing

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The housing market is in recovery although not in the way desired by many. Instead of being characterized by improvements in all housing types, the recovery seems to affect some developments more than others and some types are still stuck in recession levels. Among the surprising trends found in this housing recovery is the strong demand for multi-family housing.

Currently, buildings with five or more housing units comprise up to 35 percent of the total housing units constructed in 2014. The usual figures amount to about 25 percent. This may come as a surprise to many real estate investors, so understanding why multi-family housing is more popular now is crucial to predicting whether this trend will stay for long. 

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In understanding the popularity of multi-family housing, investors can analyze demographics and changes in the lifestyles of consumers. Part of the reason this housing type has become more in demand lately is the rise in number of young adults who are most likely to live in apartments. Their preference for apartments can be linked to the popular choice of lifestyle -– many young adults now shun car-ownership in favor of living somewhere they can simply walk to work.

Given these factors, it would be safe to say that this high demand for multi-family housing won't be around for long. As these young adults age, settle down, and start their own families, many are likely to see the benefits of moving to a single-family unit later on.

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Tony Hartman of Denver is a real estate investor who is well-versed in residential and commercial properties. For more news on the housing market recovery, visit this: Twitter page.