Always Bet on Safe Real Estate Investment Rather Than Quick Investment

Financial planning and investment is all about finding out where to invest your money so that you can get the best possible returns. Real estate investment has always been considered as safe because seldom the demand for real estate witnesses a dip. Property investment is the safest and there are strong reasons as to why it is given priority than other forms of investments like mutual funds, bonds, stocks and ETF. You can literally grow your money through property investment with minimum risk.

Investors skittish of stock market investments prefer to invest in the real estate market but there are many who have not yet got over the 2008 downturn. Scars of those days have not yet healed for many and they are not ready to invest just for the sake of property investment. They need strong and logical reason behind this investment; they prefer to wait it out rather than put in all their money hastily.

If you take property investment decisions in haste, chances are high that you will end up with something in your portfolio that would fail to produce the desired ROI. In property investment, only four different routes prevail; however, here we are going to look at only two of the most popular ones.

First: You can go ahead and invest in a rental property

Second: You can buy shares in the REIT or real estate investment trust

Buying the rental property is quite straightforward method wherein you buy a rental property and give it out on rent. However, this type of investment is not for everyone as many fail to juggle their professional lives and at the same time upkeep a property like a landlord. It takes a lot of time and effort to maintain the property you buy unless you are using the services of a management company. You can obviously use the services of a management company but be ready to take a cut in your profits.

On the other hand if you invest in REIT, you don’t have to actually own a property on the ground and go into the landlord-mode. It operates just like a mutual fund and the only difference here is that it is property investment. The trust is a group of investors who make property investment and lets the individual investors buy its shares. The trusts are able to receive tax benefits as they pay a major chunk of their income to their shareholders. You can buy shares on public investments, which implies that your investment is quite liquid. You are ensured of regular dividends.

Two other methods of property investment that are often used by investors include notes and croudfunding portals.

Notes – You will be able to invest in second mortgages, paper notes etc. You can even sell or buy notes just like other real estate invest estates. The best thing is that there are no brokers involved in this.

Inactive and Active Real Estate Agents in Ontario Who Park Their License – Explained

Before getting into the explanation of an inactive agent and an active agent we will begin with a short summary of how the real estate Brokerage system works in Ontario. We will refrain from getting into too much detail and thus the following will be a very simplified version.

In Ontario we have a Brokerage governing board called R.E.C.O. or the Real Estate Council of Ontario. A Brokerage is registered with R.E.C.O., pays its fees and dues which include errors and omissions insurance and is then ready to trade in real estate in the Province of Ontario only. The Owner/Broker may work alone as a single entity or invite licensed real estate salespeople and Brokers to join his or her Brokerage Firm and trade in real estate on behalf of the Brokerage.

A real estate Brokerage in Ontario may apply to become a member of its local real estate board. If accepted, the Brokerage will pay the board fees and dues which may include fees and dues applicable to the Ontario Real Estate Association and the Canadian Real Estate Association. If this option is taken by the Brokerage, then all the registered realty agents with this Brokerage must also become members and pay their applicable fees and dues to the said board and associations. In very rare cases, the Brokerage will cover these fees and dues for selected agents. The difference between being a board member or not is, the board members will have the privilege of all the services available to them from the board and associations including the multiple listing service which has proved invaluable to the real estate full timer and professional.

So, what is an inactive real estate agent? Simply put, an inactive agent in Ontario is one who is licensed under R.E.C.O. and for whatever reason has decided that he or she will not be trading in real estate and has not been doing so for a specified amount of time. There are still many agents in Ontario who remain with their current Brokerage and if that Brokerage is a board member, then even though an agent is inactive, he or she may still be paying fees and dues. Fees and dues may also include their Brokerage monthly fees, desk fees, franchise fees and other expenses. Since this is obviously a big waste of money these inactive agents will seek other Brokerages that will allow them to park their license without the wasted expenses.

Here are some of the terms used when referring to a Brokerage that will accept inactive real estate agents in Ontario. “Park your license”, “warehouse my license”, “hang my license”, “hold your license”, “real estate license holding company or Brokerage”, just to name a few.

A real estate agent who decides to park their license will still have some fees to pay but the difference will save them hundreds if not thousands of dollars yearly. Some of the fees will be to R.E.C.O. like their license registration fees due every 2 years and the errors and omissions insurance will still apply. In Ontario, they must earn 24 credits in their continuing education requirements as well and these credits are due on renewal.

What about the real estate Brokerage that provides the license holding services? Here the agent must do their due diligence. Seek out a trusted and proven Brokerage Office who is not a member of any real estate board. Ask for the highest commission split available to you in the event you do sell a property or 2 or if you refer sales out to other Brokerages or agents you may know. Even though your license is on Park, and you are inactive, your license in good standing is still active. Make sure you do not pay any ridiculous desk fees, extra monthly fees, franchise fees etc. Having said that, there most likely will be a small membership fee applicable for their services. Shop around for the best deal but remember to keep the experienced Brokerage that park or holds licenses a priority to you.

Inactive then, refers to the actual agent who is not active in the day to day trading of realty properties. As long as the license is registered with the Real Estate Council of Ontario and remains in good standing, your real estate license is “active”. If you decide, as an agent, to become inactive, you now have a wonderful and money saving choice to transfer and join an Ontario Brokerage that you can park your license with. This Brokerage will hold your license and this will allow you the opportunity to keep your license active so it does not fall by the wayside and lapse or be terminated.

I shudder to think about if I had to go over the process and expense of getting my Realtor license all over again..yuk! If you now have this valuable asset and are thinking of becoming inactive for whatever reason, think hard about keeping your license active because you never know how valuable this asset will be for you in the future. Hang it, park it, warehouse it, hold it, keep it active! Good luck.

Top 4 Legitimate Home-Based Businesses Available Online

It wasn’t always as easy to start a legitimate home-based business as it is now with the advent of internet. There are numerous home-based businesses out there but the sad part is that there are even more scams. If you can weed out those scams, the possibilities of legitimate home-based businesses are limitless. I am sure that you know several such success stories where people started their home-based business and went on to become successful millionaires.In this article I am going to list top 4 legitimate home-based business opportunities available on the internet that can be started with little or no capital.Information Product PromotionPeople are hungry for information. There are thousands of paid information products available on the internet and marketers promote them every day as their full time business. If you are an expert on a topic, you can create your own product or you can promote other people’s products as an affiliate. Many websites provide affiliate programs where you can promote products created by other people and earn 30% to even 90% commission. ClickBank is one such website that provides a variety of good quality product that sometimes can also be very easy to sell because all the work from developing a product to creating a sales page has already been done by experts and all you have to do is send visitors to the sales page through your affiliate link. This is probably one of the most profitable legitimate home-based businesses.ServicesThere is a huge market on the internet for service providers and freelancers. If you have skills you can leverage on your entrepreneurial drive such as graphic designing, copywriting, web development or maybe you are a research expert – you will always be able to find a huge demand for your services.ConsultationIf you are an expert, having a legitimate home-based business should be no problem for you – you can provide your expert advice through consultation services. For instance if you are a child psychology expert or a business reputation management expert, you’ll find that there are plenty of people out there who need your expert advice and are very willing to pay for it. Usually social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are great places to build credibility and find clients who need your help. Having a business website and writing for different publishing networks as an expert is a great way to promote your consultation business.Blogging for MoneyThe best thing about making money with blogging is that you do not have to be an expert on your topics. Some bloggers would disagree with this but the fact is that there are many well monetized blogs that are not maintained by experts. You can monetize a blog by contextual and banner advertising using programs like Google AdSense. Lead based CPA offers – provided by sites like NeverBlueADS are also great for monetizing a blog. Another great way to monetize a blog is by posting paid reviews for other websites. There are different websites that can help you find clients who want to buy reviews on your blog. SponsoredReviews is one such service but there are many more out there. Last but not the least, you can promote affiliate products from your blog by posting reviews with your affiliate links. These are some of the reasons why blogging has gained so much popularity as one of the legitimate home-based businesses today.