When the real estate market slows down many people begin to actively market to prospective clients. They feel that they now have the time and motivation to put a marketing plan into place. Other realtors have been marketing continuously throughout busy times and just continue to work on the marketing plan that they already have in place. Which category do you fall into? Are you too busy to market or are you still busy because you did market?

As a busy professional, marketing needs to be part of your daily routine. By having an ongoing plan, a schedule to implement that plan, and taking the time to look ahead for how you may choose to make changes to that plan, you will have a more steady flow of prospects and clients no matter what phase the real estate market is in.

Start with a simple plan and add to it as you feel necessary. Using a blog is a great way to begin. Schedule time twice a week to post to your blog, read other blogs, and comment on those other blogs. Within a very short time you will have built a body of writing and information that will position you as an expert in your particular market area. Offer your readers, who will also be your prospects and clients, lots of good information and content that will help them to know more about the real estate market that you specialize in.

By marketing on a regular basis, both online and offline, you will build up a steady source of clients to work with on a regular basis. When the market slows down you may want to increase an area of marketing that is more time consuming, such as walking through your farm or sending hand-written notes. Whatever you choose to do, just remember that marketing is a regular, consistent part of running your real estate business.

By: Connie Ragen Green

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business real estate

Investing in buildings and houses is one of the most talked about wealth accumulation vehicles. It is an option that offers almost the same advantage all over the world. However, it commands a large volume of funds and demands specific and specialized knowledge.

Here are seven top reasons why real estate is a good business-

* The demand for housing is insatiable. The mass available on earth is limited and depreciating daily while the human population is at a constant increase, so also the demand for housing units. As more people of people bid for the limited available pieces of land, the price cannot but appreciate.

* It is a good store of wealth. Among many of the trappings of wealth, real estate is the best option. Ownership of pieces of real estate is personally satisfying and makes wealth tangible. Also, the rate of appreciation is regular on yearly bases irrespective of economic situations. It can serve as personal shelter, it could be rented. Either way, it still appreciates, thus a two way income or service provider.

* It is also among the creative models of businesses. A singular piece could be rented, leased and mortgaged. Remodeling and upgrading of facilities on an old piece adds more value to it.

* It has a multiple utility. It could be used for residential, recreational, social, commercial, religious et cetra. Most times a piece of estate could be used for all of these needs simultaneously. An example is an hotel.

* The market is played by three major insider groups. They are the end users, the speculator and gamblers, then lastly the real investor. Their money backed demand for pieces of real estate makes the business a vibrant one.

* The business is the only business that can offer a three fold advantage of leverage, cash flow and tax sheltering.

* Real estate does not stop with buying an already finished homes, one can also buy a land and build anything he desires on it. Not only is it a store of wealth, it also accounts for growing of individual and cooperate net worth.

By: Kingsley Chinaemerem Igwenazor

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Caffeinated Content

Do you need a real estate development business plan? You will if you want to obtain financing for your project. The first thing any lender or private investor will want to see is your real estate development business plan. This plan is specific for development of real estate. Your business plan will tell your story in an organized and concise manner. It will provide all of the critical information needed to judge your project. A well-written and professional looking business plan is crucial for your success in obtaining financing.

Most real estate developers make the mistake of not creating a good business plan or even getting professional assistance in developing their business plan. They will use the excuse of not having enough time or they can’t find the data. Don’t let that be your excuse! All a real estate development business plan really is, is the answers to a bunch of questions! You will learn what to include in your real estate development business plan.

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary should provide a complete overview of your project & company. This will include:

Brief description of the overall project. For example, develop a 4 star, 250 room luxury hotel in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Brief overview of the company – Is it a corporation, LLC, etc? Who are the owners and/or board members? Brief company history & experience level. Brief summary of the market & demand.How large is the market and at what stage of development is the market currently in? Brief summary of the competition and what separates you from them? Brief description of key Management team members. Key financials – total acquisition & construction costs, nature & use of funds, future revenue & expenses.

The Executive Summary should be brief and an outline to your overall business plan. Now lets take a look at the specifics in the real estate development business plan.

The Company

This part of the business plan should give full details about how and when the company was formed. It should indicate the legal structure of the company, as well as where it is licensed. A key piece of information about the company is the company owners. Name all of the principals and their percentage of ownership.

Project Description

This section of the plan is where you explain your project in detail. Remember, you are selling your project so that you can get the funding you need! Is this a hotel development project? Is this a luxury, single-family home community project? Is this a multi-tenant shopping center? Give all the details about the project. For instance, lets continue with our hotel example. You will want to name the other amenities that will be located at the hotel, such as swimming pool, tennis courts, the number of conference rooms, etc. How many of the rooms will be suites? What other features & benefits will your project have?

You will also want to address where you currently are in the project. Has the land been purchased or optioned? Where are you in the permitting process? Has the architecture plans been drawn? How much time & capital has been spent on your project to date?

The Market

In this section you will provide the market type & size, current & potential growth rate, and relative stage of development of the area. You should also address why you chose this particular area. You should discuss any forthcoming changes in the market, government regulations, economy, and short-term & long-term trends. If you have performed any feasibility studies, you will want to include it as well as the source of the feasibility study.

The Marketing Plan

The main objective of any developer is to sell the homes, the stores or the hotel. And this can only be accomplished with a well thought out marketing plan. Who will handle your sales efforts? Will they be in-house or out-sourced? How will the pricing/leasing/room rate be determined? Will there be any brand or strategic partnerships involved? What is your marketing budget (in a table format).

The Competition

Any lender or investor in your project will want to feel comfortable that you know who your major competitors are. They will want to know that you have done a thorough competitive analysis. Name and describe all key competitors. What are their strengths & weaknesses? How will your project compare? What are your projects strengths & weaknesses?

The Management Team

In this section, you will want to go into further detail about the principals involved. You will need to highlight the team’s relevant experience and previous successful projects?

Well what if this is your first project?

Then you want to make sure that you have an excellent support team in place. These team members should have the experience that you are lacking (team members doesn’t necessarily mean company ownership). These team members can be legal, accounting, construction, architecture, etc. So for this section of the real estate development business plan, you will want to include:

Resumes/biographies on all principals & management team members Organizational chart Board of Directors
The Financials

Since the primary objective of your business plan is to obtain financing, you will want to address what type of financing you are seeking and how much capital is needed. You will want to state how much money you have on hand (and where did you get it from) and how much money you have spent to date.

Everything that you have put into your real estate development business plan up to now should support your financial assumptions and projections. You will want to include a statement that shows a breakdown of construction and acquisition costs. You will want to include an Income statement that will outline income and expenses for the next five years after construction. It should follow GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and contain specific revenue & expense categories. You will want to include a Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Analysis.

Now that you know what to include in your real estate development business plan, make sure that your business plan presents itself in a professional manner.

Use a table of contents, with numbered pages. Make sure that the writing style is simple and conversational. Don’t use long or complex sentences. Paragraphs should be short & simple. Use graphics & pictures but don’t get carried away. Use charts & tables to back up your data. State all sources of your data and studies. Proofread your real estate development business plan for grammatical and spelling errors. Have someone else proofread it for you. If you have the resources, hire a professional business plan writer.

By: Patti Porter

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Kansieo.com

What is one of the best ways to approach taking control of your life? Many feel it is having your own business. To be clear, I am not advocating quitting your job tomorrow to start a new business as this would not be wise. You most likely would not be able to replace your current income right away. What I am suggesting however is “building” a Real Estate Investing business in your spare time, which is different than “starting” a business.

You see, starting a Real Estate Investing business implies that you will finish it or simply give up. When you build a Real Estate Investing business you are doing it the right way, at a pace you are comfortable with. Building conjures images of growth, and that is what you want. Right? So how do you build a Real Estate Investing business?

First you need to choose a Real Estate Investing vehicle or strategy that you can work in your spare time, without jeopardizing your current job. Ideally you would be able to begin building your Real Estate Investing business with very little money. You would not cause financial hardship to your family.

You would be able to use resources that you already have. You must have a product that is desirable and that you can build upon. The Real Estate Investing business has to have the ability to begin earning money quickly. There must be enough growth potential to eventually allow you to quit your job and regain control of your life.

I know this may sound like a pretty tall order, but remember we are talking about your financial future. Would you want anything less? You will have to steadily work towards your goals (you must set goals), and it requires a different way of thinking.

Change is not easy, but it is necessary. Are you currently living the life you have always dreamed of? If not, you need to change something. Remember, regardless of the economy, a Real Estate Investing Business is a perfect product people simply because people will always need a place to live.

By: Chris Parks

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Due to the present recession more and more people are diverting their funds from the stock market to the real estate market but, in order to make a successful property investment everyone must have a properly devised property investment business plan.

There are a few things to know before devising a proper business plan for investments, as most of the people are unaware about the rules and regulations regarding real estate investments. Most of these rules are considered along with IRA investments in the market and violating them could have some very serious consequences with the IRS.

A properly devised business plan will allow you to have factors evaluated in order to help you adhere to the rules and regulations of an IRA investment. Following are some of the factors you must consider when devising your investment business plan.

1 Prohibited investments- when using the money engaged in the IRAs you should take some extra care as some of those can be considered as prohibited. Most of these so called prohibited investments are mostly collectible items like art, antiques, gems, stamps and coins. Though real estate directly does come under prohibited category of investments, still it can be considered as a prohibited transaction due to a different rule. Therefore, you must be very careful while investing your IRA here.

2 Prohibited transactions- under the prohibited transactions rule violations can occur whenever you choose to use your IRA in a manner that violates this clause. This rule generally prohibits the use of the IRA to buy or sell property, also disallows borrowing money from the IRA or also loaning money to the IRA, it can also never be used as a security for any loan and it is also prohibited to buy services or goods from the IRA or to sell services or goods to the IRA.

In case of any violations especially holding real estate using your IRA, even when it has been purchased legally you might get into trouble with the IRS. But with a properly devised business plan and proper IRA accounting you can actually manage this and invest in real estate using your IRA. Always make sure that your business plan is well devised and you have assessed all the possible violations before you make the investment. There are several different tools available for everyone to assess and create their business plans in order to be able to use their IRA to make investments.

By: Mike Lautensack

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Kansieo.com

We all need to find a good, solid real estate investment business plan – one that works in any and all situations. Since those infomercials back in the ’80s, it seems that everybody and his neighbor has been selling the do-all, miracle-working real estate investment business plan to cause even the most humble of the everyday “nobody” to rise up as a real estate superstar. Do you know anyone who has become a millionaire from using one of those so-called real estate investment business plan opportunities? I sure don’t.

When all is said and done, each time one of the next “new deals” comes out to the public with the promise of revealing real estate investment business plan “secrets”, it leaves far too much to be desired. Many of these are simply offering tips and tricks which usually are only workable in rare situations and in perfect conditions, and that’s the major part of the frustration when we discover what we have bought into… we think we’ve invested in a well designed real estate investment business plan, but all we’ve purchased is a few measly “techniques” that might just be workable if a large amount of variables just happens to coincide with each other.

Thankfully, it just so happens that there actually does exist a definite, genuine real estate investment business plan that can work in any situation you might find yourself in. In truth, it can’t be just one angle of approach. What few realize is that a plan isn’t just one single little “trick” – that would just be more like a technique or a method. A plan is a whole organization of techniques and strategies working together to form a complete and concrete plan. Only once you’ve begun to learn and practice a well designed real estate investment business plan can you actually start to see profits in this business. The kind which uses strategies which don’t require involving any credit, banks or loans is the best type of real estate investment business plan to get into, if you ever want to make it in this field with a good head start.

By: Jimmy Waller

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Kansieo.com

A crucial factor behind over all development of any country is considered to be mostly depending on the accelerated growth rate in real estate sector. Dynamic patterns of using land and its multi diverse practices have enabled the economic growth more vibrant than the decade went past. Both commercial and residential properties are more in functional practice to make rapid economic growth of the country easier. Further the development of commercial properties has played a significant role in our GDP growth in recent times.

Commercial property is like any type of property that is commercially used to make profit. The central point of commercial property is targeted towards economic and business activities. Commercial property is always meant for business purposes and revenue generation. Commercial property is a real estate specially designed for commercial, industrial and institutional activities.

A wide variety of real estates included into commercial properties that are specially used for business and industrial activities. All types of apartments, office buildings, commercial centers, shopping malls, warehouses, institutional buildings and distribution facilities come under the category of commercial properties. Real estates used for scientific research and development activities are also considered as commercial properties.

There are several major elements responsible for such mushrooming growth in commercial real estate sector. Service sector with high growth rate and IT sector, increasing multi-level economic activities and higher public-private participation in industrial sectors are some of the basic reasons behind booming commercial properties in India.

Led by mushrooming information technology industry and organized retail, Growth in commercial office space requirement is increasing day by day. For example, Information technology (IT) and ITES alone is estimated to require 150 million square feet across urban India by 2010. In a similar way, the organized retail industry is likely to require an additional 220 million square feet of land by 2010.

By: Martinez Collins

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Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

Writing a business plan is essential for developing a successful real estate investing business. There are many ways to obtain industry planning tools at no cost. The Internet provides a variety of free and paid software. Many programs focus specifically on real estate and include templates that can be customized to suit your needs.

Writing a business plan allows investors to determine their real estate objectives. The primary purpose of creating a plan is to develop a road map for starting or expanding a successful business.

A strategic plan helps investors establish goals and determine a plan of action. If you are uncertain of which direction to take your real estate business, strategy planning software can help you determine a niche.

Some real estate business software is pre-programmed with questions about various types of investment opportunities. These questions are designed to help users decide if they are better suited for retail or commercial ventures, rental properties, house flipping or wholesaling.

When developing your concept, it is important to stay focused on the requirements of your business. For example, a start-up company will have different needs than an established business.

Writing a real estate investing business plan requires time and patience. This is particularly true if the plan will be used to obtain start-up capital or expansion financing. On average, business plans consist of 20 to 30 written pages which include charts, graphs and financial projections.

Typical plans focus on seven topics and should include the following information:

1. Executive Summary – In most cases, the summary is the first thing investors, lenders and potential business partners will read. The executive summary should be concise and contain attention-grabbing information while summarizing the overall plan.

2. Mission Statement – This section expresses the focus of your company, what you stand for, your target market, and what sets you apart from competitors.

3. Products and Services – Provide a detailed explanation of the products and services offered through your real estate business. Do you buy houses in a niche market? Can you guide people through difficult situations such as bankruptcy, foreclosure or short sales?

4. Market Analysis – Utilize graphs and charts to emphasize specific market analysis. Discuss both present and future trends and describe how your organization will capitalize on those trends.

5. Strategy and Implementation – Detail strategies which will be implemented to develop a successful and profitable business. Explain your real estate goals and how you plan to achieve them.

6. Management Team – Whether you plan on establishing business as a sole proprietor, partnership or corporation, it is important to include a resume of your management team. Include details of each member’s qualifications, experience, and duties they will perform. Even if you are flying solo, chances are you will require assistance in some areas.

7. Financial Projections – Considering real estate is a turbulent market, this step can be one of the most challenging. Use the information provided within the previous sections to assess financial projections. If the presentation will be used to obtain financing, include sales forecasts for a minimum of three years.

Writing a business plan can appear to be an overwhelming task. Breaking it down into sections makes it more manageable. Real estate business plans are intended to provide insight for developing and expanding your company. They are not written in stone and should be reviewed three to four times per year to ensure you are on track.

By: Simon Volkov

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